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COM 39 B — Accent Reduction for Non-Native Speakers of English

Quarter: Spring
Day(s): Tuesdays
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm
Date(s)
Date(s): Apr 5—May 3
Duration: 5 weeks
Drop By
Drop Deadline: Apr 18
Unit(s): 1 Units
Fees
Tuition: $245
Format
Format: On-campus course
Limit: Limit 27
Status: Closed
This course is designed for individuals who are already proficient in English, but who would benefit from the reduction of their foreign accent. It provides an approach to accent reduction that is systematic yet not overly technical. The course combines theory and practice. Key concepts are introduced and then applied to language-specific pronunciation issues, followed by practical exercises and feedback. Special emphasis is placed on practical exercises that will lead students to rapid and noticeable improvement in the classroom and will also serve as a guide for continued improvement after the course is over. Topics covered include a quick, basic, and useful introduction to where and how speech sounds are produced; individual sounds of American English in isolation, with close attention to typically problematic consonants and vowels; difficult combinations of sounds; word stress; intonation; and pronunciation differences between formal and casual speech.

This course covers the same content as COM 39 A.

Neil Jacobs, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Emeritus, Ohio State University

Neil Jacobs has taught courses and workshops on phonetics, phonology, and accent reduction, and has also studied and taught several languages. He received a PhD from Columbia.

Textbooks for this course:

No required textbooks