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Self Help Listening Programs We are in the process of putting the finishing touches on our new Learn to Listen CD Rom. This program can be used alone or in conjunction with your accent modification coach to help you improve your ability to hear the subtle differences in the numerous vowels of American English.
Self Help Accent Modification Programs Do They Work? We are able to learn a lot on our own. It requires time and patience but we teach ourselves new computer programs, how to lay brick, make a fancy wedding cake, and play golf. But there are drawbacks to these processes, including: It takes longer to learn what we need to know We may not know what it is we don't know We learn part of the process, but never learn how everything fits together. Self-help programs are bought and sold with the idea of 'saving money'. But as with most things, you get what you pay for. We have had many clients come to us after spending money on CD's and tapes that promise to help them eliminate their accent. There are many problems with this method for communication improvement: 1. People don't know what they should practice 2. If they know what their errors are, they don't understand what they need to change to improve the error. 3. They don't have accurate feedback to tell they if a change they made is correct. 4. They fail to understand the various incremental steps in practice that is required to produce a change they can incorporate into their conversation. 5. The don't know how to integrate the various aspects of pitch, melody and pronunciation into their communication. Making changes in your communication can be as difficult as making changes in your golf swing. Just ask Tiger Woods. He uses a coach because he needs someone to analyze the little things that impact his swing, and to help him make these incremental changes. While we don't expect to make adults sound like a native speaker any more than an adult golfer expects to become as good as Tiger Woods just because he's taking lessons, both will improve their skills with a good coach and practice. Improving your communication skills is much more than pronunciation. It's also rhythm, pitch and word emphasis. As you became more proficient in English, you improved in the easily corrected areas of your communication. For most of my clients, they now need to work on more subtle issues of tongue tension, pitch, syllable stress and rhythm. Developing better listening skills is also critical. I could sell my CD and workbook over the internet, but believe I would be taking advantage of people who have a need to improve themselves. I am happy to work with people using the internet (web camera required), or sell to clinicians who have the knowledge and training to help their clients, and need a good program to provide the necessary lessons.
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