Advanced Accent Training

Some refer to accent training as accent reduction, while others use terms such as accent modification, or accent improvement. When modifying a foreign accent or regional dialect, one is replacing speech patterns, rather than eliminating an accent. Our clients are taught to model what is commonly known as "Standard American English", the type of pronunciation that is spoken on the national news such as CNN or FOX.

How do I choose an Accent Coach?

When looking for an accent coach, the instructor’s experience is the single most important factor to consider. Why settle for a language school that may randomly hire a tutor or part time teacher with limited experience. An accent coach should have a minimum of ten years of teaching experience, preferably skilled in several accent correction methods and ideally be offering accent training as a full time endeavor. An ESL or English tutor or teacher does not have the same training and certification as a licensed accent coach.

What is the Goal of Accent Improvement?

The goal is to acquire the skill and flexibility to speak American English more clearly and naturally. Our clients often wish to sound their best at work, on the telephone, for presentations, podcasts, TedTalks, acting scripts, working remotely, or during job interviews.

How long will it take to notice results?

An accent will usually sound milder and easier to understand after approximately 3-7 weeks of accent training and practice. The speaker will typically feel increased confidence, due to an awareness of what areas to focus on to sound more clear. As with any new skill, a commitment to practice in between weekly accent lessons is essential. Beyond the number of sessions of the training, the most important factor is the quality of the instruction during those sessions. A tutor without much expertise in accent modification may achieve lesser outcomes in 10 sessions than an experienced higher end coach can help a student accompish in half the number of sessions.

Are in person classes more effective than video-conference lessons?

Research on thousands of students and clients has demonstrated that instruction via video conference, with an experienced instructor, is as effective as in person accent coaching. Note that through March 2024, due to ongoing variants of COVID-19, RSV, and flu season, training will mostly be provided remotely. It is significantly more cost effective to choose online accent training. We have had multiple clients who started with in person lessons, and after trying one online meeting, switched to video-conference platforms.

What can I expect? 

The process begins with a recorded accent or dialect evaluation. The pattern of vowels, consonants, and intonation will be analyzed by your instructor. Any grammar difficulties will also be noted. A customized program will be designed to improve your speech clarity. Each week, you will focus on approximately three areas to reduce your accent. If the whole program is completed, you will have typically worked on about 20 or more specific targeted ways to sound more clear, using Standard American English.

What Accent coaching method is best?

The director of AAT studied with and was mentored by the three top accent modification pioneers in the United States, including with the late great dialect coach, Sam Chwat, who coached movie stars like Julia Roberts and Robert De Niro. Actors and actresses are able to learn an accent for a movie role, with appropriate instruction and effort. Accents can be neutralized using similar methods if your instructor has the proper training. One trainer with a similar academic “degree” may have only recently learned how to offer a particular accent reduction method, while another may have provided that same accent improvement methodology for ten or more years, to hundreds or thousands of students. Some instructors apply the same method for all their students, using a cookie cutter approach, whereas a skilled coach adapts and uses many tools to address unexpected issues that come up. Speech habits change based on instructor experience, skill, student practice time, and student effort.

What other Services do you Provide?

AAT also assists both foreign-born and native English speakers with improving conversation flow and small talk at work, job interview preparation, presentations, regional dialect modification, business writing, acting scripts and audition prep, vocal expression, college applications, executive communication, and more speech improvement services.

What is a Speech Pathologist?

A speech pathologist is an expert in communication. He/she/they are uniquely qualified to work with accents, articulation, language, phonology, speech, voice, public speaking, and all aspects of communication. Not all speech pathologists have extensive experience with accent training. Some are clinical speech pathologists who work mainly in public schools or hospitals as their primary vocation, and only include accent reduction as a small part of their practice. Most speech pathologists (and ESL teachers) do not have broad exposure to people with regional dialects, working with actors from different countries, or teaching experience at a university. Instructors at Advanced Accent Training are speech pathologists with at least 10 years of experience working with accent reduction or regional dialects.

Is Accent Training different from ESL?

ESL tends to focus on larger groups of students who wish to learn grammar, or English sentence structure.  While grammar and vocabulary are important, ESL classes usually do not provide enough practice with speaking and pronunciation, especially for work. Some ESL tutors may offer some pronunciation assistance, despite having minimal experience or formal training. Choose your coach wisely.

Why Choose Advanced Accent Training (AAT)?

AAT exclusively specializes in online accent reduction, regional dialect coaching, and general speech improvement services such as public speaking. Your accent coach, Jon Berton, M.A.-SLP, is a full time accent/dialect trainer and speech coach with proven results. Jon is also a speech pathologist. After approximately 25 years working as a certified American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) SLP member, Jon retired from clinical speech pathology in 2021 to focus exclusively on accent reduction, regional dialect modification and communication consulting. When Jon was an ASHA member, Jon was recognized for his commitment to post graduate education and was given the prestigious ACE award. Although still a speech pathologist with 30 years of experience, Jon is no longer formally affiliated with ASHA, although he remains in close touch with many colleagues and has hired some of them in the past.

Jon brings a unique combined knowledge of accent coaching and English language expertise. Jon has worked with over 5000 foreign speakers, and hundreds of native speakers with regional dialects to achieve clear communication. He has taught accent, speech, voice and diction at the university level, and has been hired by dozens of Fortune 500 companies. He worked with multiple CFO’s, healthcare providers, software engineers, IT consultants, project managers, bankers, entrepreneurs, actors, and many other vocations. Jon also taught ESL at several private schools in Los Angeles and Tokyo, and has experience as an ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) coach. ACT helps clients focus on meaningful goals while coping with communication challenges.