by Jennifer Claerr

Created on: May 21, 2007   Last Updated: May 22, 2007

Many people coming to English as their second language can find the process difficult. You have to learn not only grammar and vocabulary, but you're faced with a whole series of pronunciations that are foreign and unfamiliar.

It's important to learn it English with a classical North American or British accent. This is an accent without the "regionalisms" that tend to mark where a person is from. Some examples of common regionalisms would be the "hick" accents of the American South, or the Cockney accent of eastern London. These accents can be just as hindering as a foreign accent in helping you to achieve career and personal success. In fact, in some cases, they're even worse.

The elimination of a strong regional speech pattern is referred to as Accent Neutralization, or Accent Reduction. These techniques are just as important for native speakers as they are for people for whom English is a second language.

So when you're selecting a teacher, be sure to select one without any strong regional speech patterns. This also applies if you're purchasing a series of tapes or CDs, or a software program, or taking a course over the web.

Let's go over some of the basics of pronouncing classic American English. Here are a few sounds that tend to differ from the way they're pronounced in other languages. I will use regular spellings rather than phonetic ones, since they usually require special characters.

"r" as in "father" is pronounced at the middle of the mouth, by rounding the tongue and holding it directly beneath, but not touching, the hard palate. The sound is never trilled or rolled. You might almost feel as though you're growling if you hold the sound long enough. Persons of French extraction especially need to move this consonant out of the back of the mouth, where they're accustomed to pronouncing it.

"o" as in "toe" is actually a diphthong (a sound composed of two vowels) in American English. First pronounce the Spanish "o" (a pure "o"), then add "u" as in "tool". So the vowel is actually pronounced o-u. Then speed it up. Don't let it become an "ow" as in "towel". Also, southerners tend to say "uh-u", so avoid this also.

"ow" as in "town" uses a short "a" as in cat, combined with the long "u" as in tool. So it becomes "au". Diction teachers used to teach this vowel as ah-u, and drill their students with "How Now Brown Cow", however there simply is hardly anyone else in the world who pronounces it this way anymore, so don't be swayed if someone tries to put you through

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