by Judy Ravin | Apr 2, 2019 | Accent Acquisition
An accent coach may tell you that another way to think about “accent reduction” is “accent acquisition”, learning the articulation techniques to produce the sounds that differ from other languages. As with all languages, American English is characterized by common...
by Judy Ravin | Aug 7, 2012 | Accent Acquisition, American Pronunciation, British Accent, Globalization, Language Acquisition
We’re halfway into the 2012 Summer Olympics and the U.S. athletes have certainly done America proud. Take Michael Phelps, honoring the U.S. with his 18th gold medal, Gabby Douglas standing proud and bemedaled on the award stand, and 17-year-old boxer Claressa Shields...
by Judy Ravin | Apr 22, 2012 | Accent Acquisition, American Accent, American Accent Training, American Pronunciation, Language Acquisition, Wordplay
If you’ve never been to the website “Dr. Goodword” (goodword@lexiteria.com), I strongly recommend taking a look. I stumbled upon Dr. Goodword six years ago when I was looking for ways to help my son prepare for his SAT. Lo and behold, Dr. Goodword...
by Judy Ravin | Apr 21, 2012 | Accent Acquisition, Accent Reduction, American Accent, American Accent Training, Syllable Stress, Vowel Sounds
Many of us have heard that when a person, sadly, loses their vision, their hearing gets better. Sometimes their hearing gets extraordinarily better. Recently I came across an article in the New York Times that discussed a similar phenomenon, albeit with a twist. In...
by Judy Ravin | Apr 21, 2012 | Accent Acquisition, Accent Comprehension
NPR recently published a fascinating article entitled Unfamiliar Accents Turn Off Humans And Songbirds. If you were to read this title, wouldn’t you assume that meant unfamiliar accents are a ‘turn off’ to people and birds? That’s what I...
by Judy Ravin | Apr 18, 2012 | Accent Acquisition, Accent Modification, Accent Neutralization, Accent Reduction, American Accent Training
Twenty-four years ago, as an American student participating in a Junior Year Abroad program in Paris, I was inundated with the phrase, “Quoi? Qu’est-ce que tu as dis?” That’s French for, “What? What did you say?” It was then and...
