STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

American Pronunciation / "Accent"

Escrime · Kate Spade

OMG, the instructor sounds she they could use a lesson in patience. I work with people with a LOT of accents. One of the things I run into a lot is a lot of people (a LOT) are intimidated by an accent and immediately put a wall up and just say they can't understand, when they just don't want to try.

Growing up, I learned English from watching the evening news with my father, which is how he learned English. I would just suggest to the student that she watch an hour or so of evening television (the news or a documentary or one of the "educational" channels) to help with learning how certain words are pronounced. Since she is studying to be a medical lab tech, maybe suggest she watch something like the Discovery Health Channel (or whichever one has all the medical shows), to help with some of the more technical terms?

Also, another good suggestion might be for her to get study materials and guides that they have for TOEFL tests, as well as seeking out if there are any language exchange groups in your area. Maybe she can find someone who wants to learn her native language who will help her with her English. It's easier to help correct someone's pronunciation in a more academic environment, as it is less embarrassing for both parties.

halleybird · Hermes

I think that there are actually people (voice coaches, maybe?) who work with actors & news broadcasters with accents.

esquiress · Marc Jacobs

poor girl. you know what test is really cool about accents? this one--

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

ejc423 · Coach

Grr I just wrote a long reply and it got eaten by the internets.

Anyway, Halleybird is right. I'm a speech pathologist and accent reduction is one of the things we learn to do.

I assume you are at a university, pollyjean23? If your school has a speech language pathology program, she could contact the department and find out what kind of services they may offer in accent reduction.
In grad school, we had several clients in our clinic who were TAs or other university/hospital staff who were working on accent reduction. I'm pretty sure the services were provided free of charge (or else the client's departments paid a small fee).

I never had any of those clients, and accent reduction is NOT my specialty, but if I think of anything that might help, I'll let you know!

jacL · Coach

Where do you live? I am Medical Technologist (kind of like an LPN versus an RN for a MLT) and I have worked with a lot of people with accents/English not as their primary language and it is not a problem. Well, personally, I have a problem understanding some people, but the field in general seems to have a lot of foreigners (especially a lot of Asians, it seems). It may depend on where I live though, since I work in Chicago, which is very diverse. So, depending on where you are geographically, I don't think she will have a problem getting placed into a clinical. While I don't have any concrete examples for you, I would probably recommend a speech pathology or ESL class if her language proves to be a problem with other people.

-- Edited by jacL at 04:33, 2008-02-29

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. I sent her a bunch of stuff that I found, and she's going to go to our ESL lab to practice on the software and other services they have. I work at a large community college in Charlotte, so no speech path program. That is a good idea though. In the end, I really think the instructor is the one with the problem. I understand this student just fine, and I'm certain she's not the first person from India to get into MLT. Thanks!

Miss Mabel · Kenneth Cole

That poor girl - how awful to be singled out!

In my experience with Indian students learning English as a second language (which is not extensive, but I do have some) the problem is generally not pronunciation, but cadence. The cadence in English is quite different than what they are used to, and that is what tends to make American people feel they are difficult to understand. If I were you, I would recommend (as Escrime suggested) that she practice listening to English speakers and then mimicking the rhythm of their speech. Even listening to news podcasts, like NPR, and imitating them might help.