Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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!!

(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.

My work requires me to talk on the telephone using medical terms. People had much difficulty understanding what I was saying until I started practicing with The American Accent Guide. I have learned what I need to know to improve my pronunciation. My grammar has improved too. I now communicate without frustration and I feel more productive in my work.

This guide to american accent is simply amazing. I had previously tried different methods to improve my pronunciation but none of them worked. This book contains the essential information that is needed in order to understand all the facts of the american english pronunciation and intonation. Very simple, very easy to work with. I strongly recommend it!

Thank goodness for this book. My husband has been in the USA for 16 years but was often not understood because of his accent. This book and the casettes really helped him and people are noticing the difference. I had tried to help him with pronunciation for year but it didn't work - and this book DID. I think it is well worth the money. The cassettes help him continue and review. Get it if you know someone who needs this kind of help.

Be aware that The American Accent Guide, 2nd Edition, released in 2004, is an upgraded version of this book and features CDs instead of cassettes. It sells for $99.00. No need to pay $190.00 for an old, used version.

The American Accent Guide, 2nd Edition, released in 2004 is an upgraded version of this book and includes CDs instead of audio cassettes. It sells for $99.00.

The American accent Guide has provided me with valuable insights of what it takes to speak English more proficiently and clearly. I recommend it as a valuable tool to anyone wishing to improve their pronunciation skills in English. Sergio Lub President, Sergio Lub Handcrafted Jewelry