Accent reduction is a term I don’t like,* especially for performing artists. Your speech patterns are a part of you; why would you want to lose them? But if your everyday speech is limiting your castability (or, for non-performers, your ability to get work, receive promotion, or do your job (or an aspect of your job) effectively), I will be delighted to work with you on accent acquisition - learning a new way to speak that will help you get your job done.

By increasing your overall speech skills, you can make adjustments that are appropriate to the job at hand – whether it’s learning to speak just as your character would speak, acing an interview, developing a more “corporate” sound for office work, or even improving your telephone communication.

Let’s face it: The way you speak with your friends and family is your business, not mine. Your speech doesn’t need to be “fixed” - it’s not broken! If you can communicate with your listeners—no matter who they are—effectively, then you are speaking well. If you have new and different kinds of listeners in your life, then accent acquisition will help you reach them all.

* There’s actually no such thing as accent reduction. You can’t “lose” an accent any more than you can un-think a thought! What you can do is learn to speak with a new accent, and decide to use that instead of your old one. That’s why I use the term accent aquisition; because my job is to help you acquire a new speech pattern, by developing and refining skills that you can use whenever you want or need.

Last updated on November 7, 2010 by Amy Stoller