The American Accent Guide, Second Edition. A Complete and Comprehensive Course on the Pronunciation and Speaking Style of American English for Individuals of All Language Backgrounds / book and 8 CDs

Customer Reviews

I strongly recommend this book

2008-10-02
I am Japanese, however, I used to live in the US for a long time, but I always had a problem talking with an American accent. It seems like Japanese people have such a strong accent. Japanese people have been studying English for a long time, however, somehow we cannot improve our English speaking skills. I think it has something to do with the Japanese culture and personality. If we don't have enough confidence to speak English or are not sure on how to speak English, we try not to speak up. We are a very shy people. The American Accent Guide book is a great tool to improve our English pronunciation, particularly the American accent. This book uses the International Phonetic Alphabet so that it helps us how to pronounce. The explanation for each IPA symbol and picture of mouth and positioning of the tongue is very helpful for us to know how to pronounce correctly. We can practice along with the CD, which follows the book so that it is easy to understand. This book and CD gives great explanations and practices for the English inflections, stress, and rhythms. I strongly recommend this book for people who want to improve their native English speaking level and pronounce English words with an American accent. It is a very well organized book.

Almost perfect

2008-08-01
Very good book, explanations are clear and well organised, and so the cds. If it had more exercises, or those that are written only had an audio part, would be perfect.

Skip this one. Expensive and not very useful

2008-03-19
Very confusing. I teach English and I wasn't able to use it. Comes with CDs so maybe helpful for someone working on their own (no teacher) but then the directions are too confusing. Prefer to get a language book at the library!

Excellent product

2008-03-12
Before buying this book+CDs I thought I needed to refine my accent. After trying this product I realize that I have to improve a lot more (my accent, pronunciation, rithms, etc). The CDs are very helpful and go over a variety of topics. Buy it, you won't repent!

An ESL teacher's review of the American Accent Guide.

2008-02-20
I teach ESL to Asians from various countries. My students and I found the American Accent Guide to be very useful and practical. There is plenty of opportunity for practicing every sound in the English language, in context. The book helped me to explain exactly how to make each sound with the vocal apparatus. My students were able to understand the explanation and mimic each sound after I demonstrated. Also, there is plenty of discussion and practice on word stress, sentence stress, intonation and inflection. My students also enjoyed using the audio CDs to practice all of the sounds and word lists written in the book. It's a great value for the price!

Excellent Guide to Improve your Accent

2008-01-26
This highly sought after program with an international following provides thorough instruction on the intonation, stress, rhythm, and the sounds that work together to give American English its distinct "accent".

Produced by a speech-language pathologist with expertise at training all components of American English speech, this program imparts a wealth of insights and techniques, accompanied by clear graphics.

This new edition includes 8 CDs featuring a variety of male and female voices, and more conversational exercises. Interactive exercises use everyday language of social-casual to professional-business-technical situations.

The American Accent Guide is highly relevant to speakers of all language backgrounds who want to attain mastery on all aspects of English as commonly spoken in North America.

A Must Read 2007-12-31
Although I come from a English speaking environment, I faced difficulties and frustration in expressing my ideas across to some Americans because of my accent (or lack-of). I searched on the internet and bought this book after reading the glowing reviews and it proved itself to be an excellent resource. By breaking down the complexities language into smaller exercises with gradual levels of difficulties, this guide has made me aware some of the common sounds, intonations and pronunciations. I feel what this book does, is essentially equipping me with a map, highlighting the markers to look out for, and charting the path to being speaking better. Old speaking habits are hard to break, but this book has definitely made it much easier.

Worth the time! 2007-10-31
I found the book well worth the time. It brought up some very interesting points that may help to improve the accent and understanding for some English as a Foreign Language students. Because I teach, I found the book to be far more helpful than the CD, but in the right setting the CD could be just a valuable.

It's the best! 2007-03-14
I recently purchased this product. I haven't got immensed into it but from listening to the CDs, it's concise, and applicable to daily conversations. I especially like the fact that it used the voices of both male and female. Other products I've perused only use one gender. I would recommend this product to anyone who wants to speak standard American English.

A complement to Ann Cook's American Accent Training 2007-01-16
I bought this book because although I can pronounce words perfectly in English, I still have some problems with intonation. I have used Ann Cook's American Accent Training but there were still things not really covered in her book. The American Accent Guide has only two chapters on the subject but the last chapter on Intonation is covered in a way that I had never seen and goes beyond Cooks' book. It's really good. I highly recommend it but if your main interest is on intonation, you should also buy the American Accent Training since the latter has more exercises on intonation. However, if you also have problems with the sounds of English, The American Accent Guide is the perfect book for you. Maybe the only one you will ever neeed. My wife who is a U.S. born American is not happy with the book because I'm really losing my Brazilian accent which she thinks is very sexy. She says I sound too much American now. Well, if you're like me, that's not a bad thing, is it? We can always work on the sexy part some other way.