DATA SHEET: ACCENT REDUCTION
Since this old thread got bumped recently, I'd like to contribute a data sheet sharing my expertise in the area of accent reduction. I've been lurking here regularly for years but haven't contributed much to date, so this seems like a good place to start.
WHAT IS ACCENT REDUCTION? Think of Accent Reduction as the practice of deliberate improving your pronunciation in English or any other language you speak non-natively. Native speakers whose native dialect is stigmatized in professional or personal environments are also candidates. Since Accent Reduction is more about changing the way you do something rather than taking something away, the terms 'accent modification' or simply 'pronunciation coaching' are often preferred. You don't lose your accent per se. You just add new features that you can use when appropriate.
BENEFITS OF IMPROVING YOUR ACCENT. Beyond the obvious benefit of being better understood, you can close the social distance between you and your listener if you sound like them. There's a parallel here with techniques of mirroring body language to build rapport. All of this happens below the conscious level. Also, fairly or not, many people will judge your education and intelligence according to how you speak, and pronunciation is the most immediately visible feature of your speech. In addition, the better your pronunciation, the better your listening comprehension. As you discover the ways that words may be pronounced, you'll more easily understand them when you encounter them in natural speech. There's also a joy that many of us take in the mere act of doing something well, of mastering something challenging, and developing a good pronunciation in a second language certainly falls in that category. I've experienced this last benefit myself.
DOES ACCENT REDUCTION WORK? A forum member asked this question above. A useful parallel would be the question: Does going to the gym produce results? Many people work out without seeing much improvement. They usually lack consistency, effort or motivation. The same is true of improving your accent. With Accent Reduction, you let go of old habits and build new ones. You have to be open at a psychological level to changing the way you've always done something. And you have to be willing to devote some attention to your pronunciation while simultaneously holding a conversation in a second language. These are maybe the biggest obstacles to success with Accent Reduction. There's an analogy here with game, where at the surface level you're having a generic interaction but underneath you're deliberately applying things you've studied and learned to produce a certain outcome until your reactions become automatic. It takes some time and practice.
CAN YOUR ACCENT BE TOO GOOD? Elsewhere on the forum I've seen the idea floated that girls could be more into if you have a noticeable accent. But even with successful Accent Reduction, there's little chance of being mistaken for a native speaker. The analogy here is with girls who avoid the gym because they don't want to get musclebound. So you'll still have a noticeable accent. It will just be less pronounced and you'll be easier to understand.
WHICH ACCENT SHOULD YOU TARGET? In the case of English, most people should target one of the two international standards, General American or General British. (These accents go by various other names and are only broadly defined.) Obviously if you're planning to relocate permanently to Australia or Scotland or some other English-speaking country, you'll probably want to pick that variety as your target. English is increasingly used as a lingua franca between non-native speakers, but even if that's your main interest, I still recommend targeting a native standard but with some modifications that will make your English easier for non-native speakers to understand.
HOW MUCH CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR ACCENT? It is not realistic to attain a native-like accent as an adult. That should not be a goal. However, everyone can improve from whatever their starting point may be. The stronger your accent, the more room for improvement there is. If your accent is a 4 out of a possible 10, with training you can expect to boost your score 1 or 2 points. That's a big difference, comparatively speaking. If your accent is already excellent but still noticeably non-native, your results will be more modest, for example, from 9 to 9.5.
The quality of your accent in a foreign/second language depends on four factors. The most important factor is how closely related the sounds of your native language (say, Polish) are to those of the target language (say, English). A second factor is your natural talent. Some people are natural mimics; others, not so much. This is not related to your intelligence or language-learning skills in general. Another factor is your motivation. Some speakers have a sub-optimal accent but ultimately don't care. A final factor is the pronunciation-specific training and feedback you receive, including the effort you put in. I would add one additional factor that I already touched on above: your openness to change. At some level you may feel like an imposter, trying to take on a native-like accent and identity that isn't yours. This is a psychological barrier. You have to get out of your comfort zone.
HOW DOES ACCENT REDUCTION WORK? There are basically two ways to improve your accent and you should do both of them. The first involves words that you mispronounce even though you are capable of making the target sounds and may even do so in other words. For example, pronouncing 'does' so that it rhymes with 'goes', when in fact the vowels you produce should be quite different. Typically this happens because you are producing a 'spelling pronunciation', attempting to pronounce a word as it's spelled. This is especially common among educated learners whose primary or intial contact with English has been through the written word. This problem also occurs when you reflexively transfer the nearest sound of your native language to words of your second language. Additionally, stressing the wrong syllable can confuse the listener. For this kind of problem, it's helpful to have someone point out your specific errors. However, if you're being understood despite your mispronunciation, the person you are speaking with probably won't feel comfortable drawing attention to your mistake, or they may be unable to identify exactly where the problem lies. This is where a teacher or a pronunciation coach can be helpful.
Let's call this approach MIMIC + RECEIVE FEEDBACK. The big payoff here is for words that you commonly use when speaking your second language in real situations such as for business or social life. On the other hand, learning how to pronounce words you never or rarely use should be a lower priority.
The mimicry-feedback approach is useful but only takes you so far. For sounds and that you aren't able reliably recognize or to produce on demand, a first step is learning to distinguish between them when you hear them in isolation. Next, learn how they are produced. Vowels come in two varieties, monophthongs and diphthongs, and vary according to how open the mouth is, how rounded the lips are, and other factors. Consonants may be described according to three concrete factors: voicing (presence or absence of vibration of the vocal folds), place of articulation (for example, both lips) and manner of articulation (for example, a complete closure of the airstream). For example, the Ps of 'pet shop' have no vibration, involve both lips and are produced via a complete, momentary closure. Learning to produce new consonants can be done by learning to control these three variables independently. The second challenge is to produce them according to the rules of your target language rather than your native one. For example, for completely predictable reasons, in English the last sound of the plural 'cats' is different than the last sound of the plural 'dogs', even though they are both spelled with 's'.
We can call this general approach THEORY + PRACTICE, since it involves learning how sounds are produced and breaking them down into their components. Once you understand the theory, you can apply it to the pronunciation of other languages.
THE MOST COMMON ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION MISTAKES. Even if you're an experienced speaker of English as a second langugage, you may be unaware of all the different vowel sounds of English (there are fifteen in American English) and of the twenty-four consonant sounds. This is especially true if your native language has fewer vowel and consonant sounds than English. Developing this awareness can help you identify and remember the sounds of both old and new words as you encounter them.
Here are three common VOWEL PROBLEMS for non-native speakers. 1. Failing to distinguish between the vowels of the words like 'cop', 'cap' and 'cup'; between the vowels of 'look' and 'Luke' (a name); and between the first vowels of 'leaving' and 'living'. These are all distinct vowel sounds. 2. Not making a convincing diphthong in words like 'focus' (first syllable). You want to avoid sounding like you're saying 'fuck us'. 3. In American English, pronouncing the wrong vowel in common words like 'her', 'heard', 'bird' and 'word'. All of these words have the same vowel. None of them rhymes with 'hair' or 'beer'. This vowel sound exists in only a few languages, but unfortunately English is one of them.
Here are four common CONSONANT PROBLEMS for non-native speakers. 1. Not producing the target sound at the end of words like 'age', 'large' and 'language'. This sound is not the same as the one at the end of words like 'watch' or 'wish'; or in the middle of the word 'pleasure'. 2. Not producing the correct endings for regular past tense verbs. 'Kissed' ends in a 't' sound but 'hugged' ends in a 'd' sound. For '' and extra syllable is added. 3. In words like 'pet', 'ten' and 'kick', a small puff of air should be produced immediately after the first consonant in both American and British English. 4. In many languages, consonants like 't' and 'd' are dental, being produced by contact of the tongue with the back of the upper teeth. In English these consonants are usually produced farther back in the mouth, without any contact between the tongue and the back of the upper teeth. These last two points are subtle differences but they are worth focusing on for anyone who is trying to perfect their accent. More specific consonant problems depend heavily on your native language background.
Here is a common WORD STRESS PROBLEM for non-native speakers. When pronouncing compound nouns that are formed from two nouns, the first element, not the second, should receive the primary stress. Say 'aLARM clock', not 'alarm CLOCK'. This error is one of the main reasons that Sofia Vergara's character on Modern Family has such a strong accent. She makes this 'mistake' regularly.
CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR ACCENT ON YOUR OWN? You'd be surprised at how many mistakes you can identify in your own pronunciation just by recording yourself. Also, try listening to speakers of your native language and see if you can identify which aspects of their pronunciation in English are off. Just yesterday on the Trump thread, Roosh posted a video of a Nicaraguan woman praising Trump at one of his rallies:
thread-48360...pid1248374. She fails to observe the voiced plural endings rule in English, so she actually ends up saying that she wants a 'country of loss', not of 'laws' and that she loves Trump's 'blue ice', not his blue eyes. With some practice, you can learn to notice that kind of thing and check it in your own speech.
In my opinion, taking the time to get educated about phonetics and phonology in general is worth it if you are serious about making progress. A short, introductory book like Patricia Ashby's 'Speech Sounds' could be a good place to start for English phonetics or phonetics in general. And getting quality feedback on where you're at right now can start you off in the right direction if you make the effort to integrate that feedback into the way you use English or whatever your target language is.
FINAL COMMENTS. Whatever your goals may be with English or some other language, I don't think it makes sense to get too hung on pronunciation, if doing so ends up making you sound disconnected or unconfident when you speak. The main point is to communicate well, and pronunciation is only one factor among several. Good luck and hit me up via PM if you have any specific questions. I not only do this professionally but I'm a language geek and enjoy observing language and seeing how learners advance and perfect their skills.
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And watch their hamster spin out of control! 
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. The fastest way to learn an accent is to have an unabashed admiration and desire to learn that accent and hear it on a daily basis..your brain will subsconsciously re-design how you pronounce those words.
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