2006-09-27 05:02:30 · 9 answers · asked by Prasanth V 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Check around in your area; you may find businesses that specifically offer coaching in your accent, in addition to simply teaching language.
Or, you could befriend some native English speakers, and ask for some constructive criticism on your pronunciation and use of idiom.
2006-09-27 05:07:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Almost all of a good accent has to do with how vowels are pronounced. If you don't know the difference between long and short vowels for a,e,i,o, and u, or if you have never heard what the schwa sound is, you might want to start learning more about phonetic pronunciations. Listen to music in English, watch TV in English, whatever you can do to be around it more and more.
2006-09-27 16:04:10 · answer #2 · answered by Cookie777 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on what accent you are going for, for sure.
If you are interested in becoming more understandable to speakers of American English, I recommend the course called "Pronunciation for Success". It's available for purchase at www.eslvideos.com. Many pronunciation courses make the mistake of focusing too much on individual consonant and vowel sounds, when there are other features of accent that affect understandability much more than individual sounds. Pronunciation for Success has an appropriate balance, I think. It's designed to be a self-study course, so you do the course yourself at home.
Cookie is right that vowels are very important in English, but it's not just the vowel sounds. More important is the length of vowels and their pitches.
2006-10-01 01:33:51 · answer #3 · answered by drshorty 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with Irish eyes, watch as much TV, and American movies as possible.
Your accent would improve in a week I bet.
I went to Germany for two years.
I used to hang out in the bars, or gasthauses,(the spelling may be off at this time), I spoke the language fluently in about three weeks.
I went to places where no'one spoke my native language.
I reached a point where I was teaching a German kid to read his own language, that took about a year though.
I purposely went to places where I needed to speak the language.
2006-09-27 12:19:39 · answer #4 · answered by theodore r 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Accent modification is really challenging, train yourself
at home with CCN/BBC news
2006-09-27 12:23:49 · answer #5 · answered by Eco-Savvy 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Watch American movies and practice speaking the way the actors do.
2006-09-27 12:06:19 · answer #6 · answered by Irish Eyes 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Listen to native speakers often and talk a lot.
2006-09-27 12:10:03 · answer #7 · answered by Lady G. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Take diction classes
2006-09-27 14:01:11 · answer #8 · answered by ~♥ L ♥~ 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
get into an acting class
2006-09-27 12:09:49 · answer #9 · answered by mystery t 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋