What is Done in Accent Modification?

The goal of accent modification is to enhance the intelligibility and naturalness of a spoken language or dialect, but that is very subjective (McKinney, 2019). One might say that it’s in the ears of the beholder. However, there is no standard language, accent, or dialect, making it difficult to obtain a baseline and measure outcomes of accent modification.

However, there are things known about speech development that can be applied to accent modification – like the core principles for accent modification, if you will.

1️⃣ Phonological Awareness:

One factor in acquiring a new accent is phonological awareness. This refers to one’s awareness of the sound structure of words and the ability to discriminate, remember, and manipulate sounds at the sentence, word, syllable, and phoneme (sound) level.

Phonological awareness is important in accent acquisition because a client must be able to hear how sounds, syllables, and words are produced in isolation as well as in connected speech. Clients must also be able to discriminate between productions in their own speech and their desired speaking patterns.

2️⃣ Principles of Motor Learning:

Motor Planning

Another factor in acquiring a new accent is motor learning. First, motor planning refers to the brain’s ability to learn to perform steps to make movement happen (such as walking, brushing your teeth, or speaking) and remember those steps. Basically, the more we perform a skill, the better we get at it.

Specific to speech, we must first think about what to say, how to say it, and then execute those steps. Because of speech motor planning, the brain can automatically tell your mouth exactly how to say what you are thinking once you come up with a statement (and sometimes this occurs before you even realize what you are saying!). We don’t have to remember how to produce every single sound to form a word or sentence.

Motor Adaptation

Thanks to motor planning, we don’t have to relearn how to speak every time we learn a new language, accent, or dialect. Therefore, we just need to adapt the skills we already have, which is referred to as motor adaptation. As a result, accent modification clients generally must focus on adapting their pronunciation of some consonants and vowels to make them more aspirated, longer, shorter, or adapt their prosody to match the rhythm of a language. In some cases, in which a L1 and L2 have different phonological repertoires, or sound inventories, a client may need to completely learn a new sound (Ojakangas, 2013). Principles of motor learning tell us that new skills should be practiced in an easy context and then gradually made more challenging. Regarding accent acquisition, it’s best first to teach a target and then address them individually in shorter utterances, followed by longer utterances.

I consider shorter utterances to be the introduction phase where these contexts are introduced and drilled:

1. Isolation/Syllables (phonemic sound level)
2. Single words
3. Phrases (2-4 combined words)

I consider longer utterances to be the carryover phase and consist of more complexity in these contexts:

1. Sentences (5+ combined words)
2. Reading passages aloud
3. Conversation

Formats

To help build the client’s motor planning, motor adaptation, and phonological awareness skills, I use the following formats. Remember the acronym M.O.T.O.R. Below is a description of each format and an example.

All accent modification programs should include phonological awareness and motor learning. These skills can be applied to learning any accent or dialect!

For more information on the efficacy of accent modification, check out my blog post on the Efficacy of Accent Modification.

References

Lim, Kari. (2022). Speaking with an American Accent: A Guide to General American English.

Maas, E., Robin, D. A., Austermann Hula, S. N., Freedman, S. E., Wulf, G., Ballard, K. J., & Schmidt, R. A. (2008). Principles of motor learning in treatment of motor speech disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17, 277–298.

McKinney, Robert (2019). Here’s How to Do Accent Modification: A Manual for Speech-Language Pathologists 1st Edition. Plural Publishing.

Ojakangas, C. L. (2013). Viewpoint: What brain research can tell us about accent modification. Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Populations, 20(3), 101–108. https://doi.org/10.1044/cds20.3.101