The American Accent Guide: A complete and comprehensive course on the pronunciation and speaking style of American English for individuals of all language backgrounds/ book and 8 cassettes [Spiral-bound]

Beverly A. Lujan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0963413988 | ISBN-13: 978-0963413987 | Publication Date: April 1999 | Edition: Book & Cassettes 2nd

This 1999 has been replaced by the graded title, "The American Accent Guide, 2nd Edition" released in 2004, which includes CDs instead of audio cassettes.

For those who prefer audio cassettes, this version of "The American Accent Guide" provides you most of the exercises and the same high quality of the 2nd Edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Everything I needed to learn about American English speech was contained in The American Accent Guide. -- An Pham, engineer Varian Associates, Inc.

The American Accent Guide is wonderfully organized and is innovative in its approach and methods. -- Pamela OBrien, Clinical Director in Speech-Language & Audiology Department at University of Utah

The American Accent Guide should be called "English Pronunciation Made Easy and Enjoyable". -- Trinidad Martinez, teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, public schools

About the Author

Beverly A. Lujan has been a practicing speech-language pathologist specializing in accent reduction for over 15 years. She has counseled hundreds of non-native speakers of English from countries around the world. She has supervised graduate students of speech-language pathology doing clinical practicum in accent reduction at the University of Utah. She founded the Lingual Arts School in Salt Lake City that has conducted courses and seminars on accent modification for corporate, government, and educational clients.

Ms. Lujan completed undergraduate studies in phonology and linguistic studies at San Diego State University and attained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Speech-language Pathology University of Utah. She has subsequently done independent research and study with national associations on foreign accent reduction.

Member of TESOL (Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages) Certified by ASHA (The American Speech-Language and Hearing Association)

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 210 pages
• Publisher: Lingual Arts; Book & Cassettes 2nd edition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963413988
• ISBN-13: 978-0963413987
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,072,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sherrill Odgers, Certified ESL Teacher, K-8, July 31, 2000

By 

Sherrill Odgers (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Accent Guide: A complete and comprehensive course on the pronunciation and speaking style of American English for individuals of all language backgrounds/ book and 8 cassettes (Spiral-bound)

Generally, and coincidentally, wonderful changes are discovered by accident. As an elementary public school teacher in a self-contained classroom, I have an assistant (certified to teach in South America) who helps me meet the language needs of students from diverse backgrounds and language abilities. For some, Spanish is the dominant language. All are learning English, however. My assistant is using the American Accent Guide text and audiocassettes to improve her English pronunciation. Through curiousity, I reviewed the material and, to my astonishment, found the text to contain a wealth of lessons that I can use with all my students to teach them to become better speakers and writers of English. Though intended for adults with a good grasp of English structure, the book is suprisingly easy to use with students even in the primary grades. Inside is a storehouse of skills that any teacher can adapt to teach language arts, including, but not limited to letter/sound relationsips, vowels, consanants, blends, digraphs, syllabication, simple sentence structure. The list of phonics skills is extensive. I especially enjoy the playfulness by which the language is presented, making teaching and learning of English an enjoyable experience. Go beyond pronunciation objectives in this text and enter a realm that reminds even the proficient speakers of the English Language that there is still a good deal to learn about the way we speak.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Bests, July 19, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The American Accent Guide: A complete and comprehensive course on the pronunciation and speaking style of American English for individuals of all language backgrounds/ book and 8 cassettes (Spiral-bound)

I have studied through many American English pronunciation guides and programs and own many of the relavant products. I found the following extremely useful:
1. The American Accent Guide (the one being reviewed) by Beverly Lujan, edited by C. J. S. Wallia of U.C. Berkely. This is one of the authorities existed in the market. It is extremely comprehensive and clear. You will learn every essential thing here! Although a bit expensive, worth owning one!!
2. Donna Hope's American English Pronunciation helps you step by step the pronunciation of every English phoneme in an extremely detailed format! The great asset is that it clarifies the similar phonemes in great detail. After you finish the book, you will be able to speak like a native English speaker! (Of course, you must be a diligent learner)
3. Ann Cook's American Accent Training contains 5 good quality CDs. She doesn't teach you how to pronounce every phoneme but does emphasize on the important ones! Extremely clear voice! My favorite!
A linguists should definitely own AT LEAST one of the above!!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars most comprehensive and accurate I've found, June 3, 2004

By 

Maria B (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Accent Guide: A complete and comprehensive course on the pronunciation and speaking style of American English for individuals of all language backgrounds/ book and 8 cassettes (Spiral-bound)

(Note: There's a second edition out on CD now.)

I checked out all the accent training materials I could find from the library and I believe this one to be the best. (I looked at the following: American Accent Guide, American Accent Training, Pronounce It Perfectly in English, American English Pronunciation Program, How to Speak English without an Accent, and EasyAccent. I also looked at Well Said, and do not recommend it for self-teaching.)

So you know who this review is coming from: I'm a native speaker of American English and lifelong linguistics enthusiast. I investigated these accent reduction systems at the request of a non-native speaker looking to improve his accent, and I became fascinated with the variety of offerings out there (many of which were woefully incomplete). Although I have not personally used these systems, I hope my analysis as a native speaker will be helpful to some! Perhaps I'll have more to add later when I see it put to use.

Of the materials I looked at, I prefer Lujan's (the item being reviewed) for the following reasons:

1. It is at the top in comprehensiveness. The only other program I found in the self-teaching category that was comparable was Ann Cook's American Accent Training. (Note: I did not look at Donna Hope's American English Pronunciation, which was mentioned by another reviewer--that may be good as well.) All the others described individual sounds (some less helpfully than others), but in the areas of linking, rhythm, and intonation, their coverage ranged from partial to non-existent, and was sometimes misleading.

2. It has the most accurate and complete method of explaining and transcribing rhythm and intonation, in my opinion. As mentioned, none of the other methods but Cook's covered this area extensively, and I believe it to be extremely important. Both Lujan and Cook indicate the great importance of rhythm and intonation in accent, but have devised different methods of explanation and transcription. I felt Lujan's was more complete, and when I read the examples aloud (and listened to the audio), the transcription matched perfectly in all cases. I did not feel quite as comfortable with Cook's in that regard.

3. It does a good job of offering examples of regional speech which the reader might encounter, while letting the reader know they are non-standard. This is arguably valuable, but what I think is particularly important is *not encouraging* the reader to use unnecessary speech patterns. This is one thing I did not like about Cook's presentation and part of the reason I prefer Lujan's. Cook has a section on merging words together and gives examples and exercises along the lines of "pronounce 'did you' as 'didju'." This is definitely not necessary, and as a native speaker, I do not make these links and find them annoying to hear. Anyone reading Cook's book would do well to ignore this section.

My overall recommendation:
Get Lujan's American Accent Guide. If you are really into it and want something else--which wouldn't be necessary, by the way--or you need a pep talk, get Cook's as well. (But don't start saying "didju"!) I probably wouldn't try to reconcile the chapters on intonation from both of those--I'd just stick with Lujan's. If you are not super motivated to go through a comprehensive program, or want some "light listening" on your off days, you might also get Pronounce It Perfectly in English from the library. It is lacking, but not that bad for basic information (though again, I believe the intonation part is a little inconsistent).

Bottom line:
If you're only going to get one book on improving your accent, get the American Accent Guide. It's good stuff.