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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

accent reduction therapy, second language, ESL, spectrographic acoustic cues

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Communication Disorders

Abstract

In a world where more and more opportunities are opening up on an international level, it has become increasingly important to be able to communicate effectively. Accent reduction therapy was developed to help people reduce foreign or regional accents that would otherwise put them at a disadvantage. International students who are speakers of English as a second language (ESL), upon starting school in the United States, will often struggle because of strong accented speech in the already competitive world of academics. Strong accents can adversely effect their ability to communicate and succeed in the classroom. Upon graduation, the ability to be understood clearly is even more important as they look for a job. Sadly enough, accent and ethnicity have been used as negative predictors of employability. However, research (Hamers & Blanc, 1989) has shown that when a well developed standard English accent is used by a speaker of English as a second language the overall perception is highly favorable. Spectrographs have been successfully used to identify acoustic cues important in the description and evaluation of many communication disorders (Eaken & Daniloff, 1991). The increased integration of acoustic cue analysis into accent reduction therapy seems to be a natural progression in the advancement of this field. By identifying spectrographic acoustic cues associated with many of the mistakes made by foreign speakers of English as a second language, the clinician would be provided with a powerful tool to make therapy more effective. Assessment could become more efficient by providing the clinician with actual visualification of clients misarticulations. This information could then be used to specify the focus and direction of a therapy program. In therapy, ESL clients would be provided with a visual comparison of their utterances compared to a native American speaker. This comparison would provide an example that the client could work towards and therefore stimulate the desire to succeed. Finally, spectrographic acoustic cues could be used as baseline and post-treatment data to evaluate the progress of the client and measure effectiveness of therapy.

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