Accent Reduction — Non-credit Distance Course

Washington State University's Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences is offering a computer-based, non-credit distance education course designed for non-native speakers of English who wish to modify their accents when speaking English. The course is also designed for non-native speakers of English who wish to modify their English language pronunciation and intonation when speaking English and improve how well they are understood. The course is also appropriate for native speakers of English who wish to modify regional accents. Professionals, scientists, business persons and anyone whose major responsibility is to communicate with others will find this course especially helpful in improving oral fluency and speech intelligibility. A clinical assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences with national certification in speech-language pathology from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association will oversee the course.

This non-credit course will emphasize pronunciation and intonation. The course includes an initial diagnostic test to customize the appropriate "Speech Works" computer-based lessons to the individual student. Students work independently using "Speech Works Accent Reduction Tool," software that each student purchases (approximately $85) for home use or the program can be accessed at no charge at a Washington State University Learning Center. The course instructor will orient each student to the Speech Works software, conduct a diagnostic assessment, customize the Speech Works lessons based on the assessment outcomes, evaluate the student's disk and provide feedback. The student will determine when he or she is ready to save speech samples to disk and send to the instructor for feedback and individual evaluation. Students interact with the instructor via e-mail and telephone. The cost of the course includes the instruction manual, diagnostic assessment, three evaluations and feedback from the instructor based on the student's disk, and a certificate of course completion. Students must complete the course within nine months from the date of enrollment.

The computer-based program, "Speech Works," has the following attractive features:

• Easy to use.
• Lesson plans and sequences are designed for speakers of 30 native languages and 14 English dialects.
• Practical (lessons are designed by experienced professionals to treat pronunciation issues that interfere with professional communication).
• Lessons are customized to include vocabulary recorded by the instructor for the individual student to practice.
• Lessons are graduated in difficulty, moving from single words to professional vocabulary in context.
• Program gives immediate feedback regarding pronunciation.
• Individually paced (the student determines the number of lessons and practice productions he or she needs before recording for instructor feedback.