The Spanish language does not have the same /z/ sound that exists in English. The letter ‘z’ in Spanish is pronounced as an ‘s’. Therefore, common pronunciation differences such as “sip” for “zip”, “bus” for “buzz”, and “race” for “raise” often occur when a person who speaks Spanish as their first language speaks English.

Frequently, the /sh/ and /ch/ sounds are reversed. For example, a Spanish speaking person may say “share” for “chair” and “chip” for “ship”, as well as “cash” for “catch”, and “witch” for “wish”.

In English, there are numerous words that begin with s-blends (meaning the ‘s’ is immediately followed by another consonant), as in the words: stop, spin, school, slow, snow, smile, sweet, scratch, street, splash, spring. In Spanish, words containing s-blends are preceded by the letter ‘e’, pronounced as “eh”, such as: escuela, estrella, espalda. Therefore, we often hear native Spanish speakers adding an “eh” sound at the beginning of s-blend words in English.

Another sound substitution typically observed is the interchanging of the ‘y’ and ‘j’ sounds in words such as: “yet” and “jet”, “yawn” and “John”, “yellow” and “jello”, and “mayor” and “major”.

The short ‘i’ vowel that occurs in a word such as “bit” is a sound that does not occur in Spanish. This sound is typically replaced by Spanish speakers with a long ‘e’ sound. Examples of this are: “bit” usually pronounced as “beat”, “will” as “wheel”, and “Tim” as “team”. As one can see, by changing the pronunciation of the vowel, the words take on completely different meanings which can cause confusion in communication.

Through the accent reduction course that I teach, and consistent practice, I have helped many Spanish speaking individuals to improve their communication skills and to speak Standard American English with a markedly reduced accent.

Similarities Between Mandarin and Cantonese Accents

Naturally, each client comes to me with their own unique accents, however, there are many common traits observed within Mandarin and Cantonese accents. For instance, some final voiced sounds of words are frequently pronounced as unvoiced consonants. Examples of this are: saying “bet” for “bed”, “lap” for “lab”, and “back” for “bag”. Frequently, I observe the ‘L’ and ‘R’ at ends of words to be diminished or omitted. Additionally, in both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers, I observe several vowel pronunciation traits such as saying “beat” for “bit” and “ had” for “head”.

Differences Between Mandarin and Cantonese Accents

In a Mandarin accent, there is a tendency to pronounce ‘L’ at beginning of words as /r/, whereas Cantonese speakers often substitute an “L” with the /n/ sound. Also, the voiceless /th/ at the beginning and end of words is often pronounced by Mandarin speakers as /s/, (e.g. “sing” for “thing” and “teese” for “teeth”); Cantonese speakers commonly substitute /f/ for /th/, (e.g. “fum” for “thumb” and “wif” for “with”).

Individualized Accent Reduction Program for Individuals from China

The speech of each of my clients is evaluated in depth and an individualized accent reduction program is developed for their own unique needs. Individuals from China have many common pronunciation traits, but also notable differences that must be recognized and addressed by a qualified speech therapist specializing in accent reduction.

With the accent reduction course that I teach and consistent practice, all of my clients including those from China are able to achieve considerable improvement in their ability to speak American English.

Here are some things to consider when choosing an accent reduction trainer:

Trust

Ask yourself if you feel a high level of trust with the person you choose, based on their credentials and competence, for example, whether they are a licensed, certified speech and language pathologist.

Experience

Take a look at how long they have been doing accent reduction and the number of different first languages they have worked with.

Attitude and Acceptance

Look for someone with a high degree of patience, and a non-judgmental, caring, and accepting attitude. You want to work with someone who won’t cause you embarrassment if you make mistakes and understands the challenges associated in learning to speak in a new way.

Every client should be treated as a unique individual, with an accent reduction program created to suit their specific needs.

Naturally, the severity of accents differs from person to person (See my blog post “Everyone is Unique”); however, there are some common pronunciation traits that I often observe.

Firstly, because the Russian language does not normally use articles such as “the,” “a,” and “an,” many of my clients speak English without including these words. So, for example, they might say, “I have white shirt,” instead of saying “I have a white shirt,” and “Witch is ugly,” instead of “The witch is ugly.”

Secondly, the most common sound production differences I have observed are trilled /r/ sounds; the addition of a hard /g/ at the end of words ending in ‘ing,’ ‘ong,’ ‘ang,’ and ‘ung;’ /v/ substituted for /w/ (for example ‘vite’ for the word ‘white’), and the use of unvoiced consonants for voiced consonants at the end of words, (for example ‘jop’ for ‘job’, ‘flak’ for ‘flag’, ‘luff’ for ‘love’, ‘bus’ for ‘buzz’, and bret’ for ‘bread’).

There are also several vowel sounds that I often work on such as the short ‘i’ as in the word “hit” that gets pronounced as a long ‘e’ and sounds like “heat”.

Through the accent reduction course that I teach, all of these areas are addressed, and considerable improvement rates are achieved.

It also important to take into account other influencing factors when evaluating a non-native speaker’s English: where did they learn, and who taught them.  If for instance, the English teacher was from England, the client may sound more British rather than American.  Another factor may be if they speak a third or fourth language, their pronunciation of English may be influenced in several directions.

Occasionally, a person may have an underlying speech disorder, such as a lisp, which may exist in their native language as well as when they speak English.  The strength of the accent also varies from person to person, ranging from mild to severe.

So, while there are universal similarities in learning new sounds in speaking a new language, individual differences are the differences that make a difference.

After teaching her the Standard American way of saying the “ng”, which she caught on to quickly, she had a lot of fun contrasting her “old” and “new” way of producing this sound. By the time we finished the course, she was starting to use the “new” sound most of the time.

By enrolling in an accent reduction program, it is very important for a sense of trust to be established between learner and teacher. In order to learn and make progress, learners need to feel that they are in a safe environment and that it is OK and natural to make mistakes. As human beings, making mistakes is at the heart of learning something new. For some, it is intimidating to change long established speech patterns. Learning and practicing new speech patterns can flourish when there is a well-established sense of trust between learner and teacher. Once a student experiences increased confidence when speaking with their teacher during lessons, this confidence will begin to carry over into their daily lives.