American Accent for Beginners

If you’ve ever wondered why people struggle to understand your speech—or you’re simply curious about how accents work—you’re in the right place. Learn how accent modification can help you speak more clearly, sound more natural, and build confidence in your communication skills.

✔ What is an accent?

✔ Why do we keep certain speech patterns from our native language?

✔ What makes learning new sounds as an adult so challenging?

✔ And why do accents matter so much to our identity?

You’ll also hear about a classic example from sociolinguist William Labov that shows how people shift their accents based on social context—demonstrating just how powerful and flexible our speech can be. Whether you’re a professional aiming to improve clarity, or just beginning your accent journey, this video is a great place to start.

References:

Dobel, C., Lagemann, L., & Zwitserlood, P. (2009). Non-native phonemes in adult word learning: Evidence from the N400m. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 364(1536), 3697–3709. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0158

Gurevich, N. (2022). Clinical Applications of Linguistics to Speech-Language Pathology. Taylor & Francis. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781000774825

Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(11), 831–843. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1533

Kuhl, P. K., Williams, K. A., Lacerda, F., Stevens, K. N., & Lindblom, B. (1992). Linguistic experience alters phonetic perception in infants by 6 months of age. Science, 255(5044), 606–608. www.jstor.org/stable/2876832

Labov, W. (1963). The social motivation of a sound change. Word, 19(3), 273–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1963.11659799

McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100

Schmidt, A. (1997). Working with adult foreign accent: strategies for intervention, 24 (47-56). https://doi.org/10.1044/cicsd_24_S_4