Advice on Accent Reduction

ESO Students,

Watch the video below and you'll see some familiar, useful pieces of advice from Paddy Kennedy, principal of Kennedy Communication Studio... yes, you have heard them from us time and again!

• Your accent is not the problem
• Language has rhythm
• Hear the music in the language
• You're trying to speak my language in the rhythm pattern of your language and I can't understand it.
• English is a beat-driven language... everything we say can be drummed out.
• We speak in sound units: We-do-not-speak-word-by-word
• You don't want to see the language... you need to hear it, to listen to it.
• Imitate native speakers, everything they say... and exaggerate, make the sound big!!.
• You need to train the organs of articulation: your tongue, your cheeks, your mouth (that's why no chewing gum is allowed in class!)
• Tongue twisters: find them and say them as if they mean something... and say them with rhythm.
• The most important thing is the up and down of the language.
• Just keep practising... that's how we learnt our mother tongue.

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