American Accent Training. Cook Ann

A great training tool for classroom or for personal use! In recent years, Barron's American Accent Training has gained wide respect as a self-teaching program, but more and more speech trainers, teachers, and speech therapists report that they are also using it as a valuable teaching tool in their speech classes. This new edition now comes with downloadable audio. The program goes where no American accent training tool has gone before, providing highly innovative instruction for both students and business people. The structure of the book has been reorganized, offering students a much more clear and direct sequence of lessons and a path to better understanding The downloadable audio component features professional male and female voices that have been carefully selected to represent authentic American pronunciation and intonation Pronunciation exercises encompass all vowel sounds, consonants, blends, and diphthongs Emphasis on linking, or phonetically transcribed sound liaisons, help students "see" the correct sounds Designed for foreign-born students and business people working, travelling, or studying in the United States and Canada Supplementary materials include detailed nationality guides for 11 languages (Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Korean, Arabic, the U.S. Southern accent, and African languages). More valuable features include access to a comprehensive website, and referral to a qualified telephone analyst for an individual diagnostic speech analysis.

Table of Contents
Introduction: Read This First iv
Telephone Tutoring: Preliminary xi
Diagnostic Analysis
Chapter 1 The American Sound 1
Pure Sound 2
Voice Quality 3
The American Speech Music 4
Four Main Reasons for Intonation 10
Can or Can't? 16
Intonation and Attitude 18
Squeezed-Out Syllables 23
Syllable Stress 26
Complex Intonation 30
Phrasal Verbs 41
Chapter 2 Word Linking & Phrasing 45
Word Groups and Phrasing 54
Chapter 3 Cat? Caught? Cut? 59
The Miracle Technique 65
Chapter 4 The American T 67
Chapter 5 The American R 75
Chapter 6 The El 81
Chapter 7 Reduced Sounds 89
Grammar in a Nutshell 98
Chapter 8 Tee Aitch 106
Chapter 9 S or Z? 108
Telephone Tutoring: Mid-Point 111
Diagnostic Analysis
Chapters 1-9 Review and Expansion 112
Chapter 10 More Reduced Sounds 134
Chapter 11 "V" as in Victory 142
Chapter 12 Tense and Lax Vowels 146
Chapter 13 The Ridge 150
The Verb Map 152
Chapter 14 Grammar in a Bigger 154
Nutshell
Chapter 15 Practical Application 158
Chapter 16 Nasal Consonants 160
Chapter 17 Throaty Consonants 162
Telephone Tutoring: Final Diagnostic 165
Analysis
Chapters 1-17 Review and Expansion 166
Nationality Guides 188
Chinese 189
Japanese 193
Spanish 196
Indian 199
Russian 202
French 204
German 205
Korean 207
Arabic 209
The American South 210
African Languages 213
Answer Key 216
ESL Teacher's Guide 220
Index 232

Accent is a combination of four main components: voice quality, intonation (speech music), liaisons (word connections), and pronunciation (the spoken sounds of vowels, consonants, and combinations). As you go along, you'll notice that you're being asked to look at accent in a different way. You'll also realize that the grammar you studied before and this accent you're studying now are completely different.
Part of the difference is that grammar and vocabulary are systematic and structured—the letter of the language. Accent, on the other hand, is free form, intuitive, and creative—more the spirit of the language. So, thinking of music, feeling, and flow, let your mouth relax into the American accent.