We had two possible "eye-catching" titles for this issue with the hope that new readers would be curious enough to open the email. The other title was "Confidence Comes From Success, Not Pep-Talks."  Both really point to the same thing: If a training program, such as accent modification, really works, the results will be demonstrated.  When a client experiences himself or herself as being understood the first time most of the time, when he is not asked to repeat or rephrase, he or she is experiencing success as a speaker of "listener friendly" English.  Each concrete experience of success builds more confidence and the speaker begins to participate more readily in meetings and networking conversations, has more success, builds more confidence.

   "Pep talks" i.e. encouragement by the instructor, should help the client understand the learning process, the need for patient and persistent practice and constructive feedback. 

 

  E.P. is an Attorney from Venezuela, and her native language is Spanish. If you click on this link to Sound Cloud  you will hear her reading the "Rockefeller Passage" from the Compton Pronouncing English as a Second Language Pretest (Roc-Pre 2) and then reading the same passage during her post test (Roc-Post 8).  The numbers are just my way of ordering the multiple sound files to enable transcription. The sound link will not work in Safari but does in Firefox and other browsers.

  You can move back and forth and compare specific parts of the reading passage and then decide for yourself if "the proof of the pudding is in the eating."