Sunday, June 13, 2010

Systematic correction - lost in the shuffle?

When I entered the field of Accent Modification, it's wasn't very popular. Back in the 60's, Speech Therapists were doing it, but in the 80's and 90's it was viewed as "insensitive" because "accent are beautiful" and who are we to judge or correct?

Then, more recently, non-native speakers from all over the world began to assume many of the key technical, scientific and managerial positions in the US, and the situation changed --- dramatically. Suddenly, large numbers of executives and professionals living in the US were speaking in a way that wasn't clear or easy to understand. But since we had "thrown out the baby with the bath water," no one was doing true accent modfication anymore. That's why it was difficult to get the momentum back ... at first.

Today you can Google "accent" or "get an American accent" or anything similar, and get all kinds of links to click on. The question is - do these links really address the issue? I find most of them are related to pronunciation (a good start), but by no means a comprehensive one. Much of what is required to successfully modify a foreign accent has been lost, not the least of which is systematic correction.

This comes up during a "down" economy a great deal. People want to receive feedback in groups. "Can't we get a group together and get a discount?" they ask. The other issue that surfaces is technology: "Can't I buy some software to figure out how to change my accent?"

Of course, you can find group classes and software options, no question. But will you successfully change your accent and be able to sustain that change with these options? And if you won't, why not?

My suggestion is that the concept of systematic correction (1-1) by a native speaker has been lost! Much of what was happening in the 60's has been re-created in the new milennium, but this concept has been tossed aside, most likely due to its lack of scalability and lack of popularity in a less than prosperous economy, as in "I know it won't be as effective, but can't we still give it a try?"

I find it ever more important to point out to clients that what they really need to focus on is "systematic" correction in the order in which a professional determines they need to create change; otherwise they are wasting time and money and expending effort needlessly, only to find in the end that very little has changed, leading only to discouragement: "Why bother? It doesn't work anyway!"

And all of this agony and frustation can be avoided so easily by approaching it from the right perspective! I may be preaching to the choir, but sometimes singing the same song loudly and eloquently can have a desirable effect!