I am now working with a woman from France who is a very busy marketing director. What does she say? In so many words, she says this: I’m tired of people asking me what I said. I have to repeat what I say too often. I don’t like it. It’s annoying. Does that sound familiar to you?

By contrast, and this is not unusual, she says she does not have time to practice regularly. It’s better to be on a regular practice schedule for accent reduction and pronunciation improvement. Just the same, progress and improvement are taking place. She commented that being aware of intonation and adapting to the falling intonation patterns of English has been helping her. People understand her more easily. And she’s able to manage situations in which someone does not understand her the first time more skillfully, Of course, there’s more that goes with intonation than the typical falling patterns for sentences, phrases, and words. Multi-syllable word intonation and pronunciation are key to improving and being more easily understood.

She was, also, pleasantly surprised to know that mispronouncing consonants is not as much of a problem as she thought it was when it comes to people not understanding what she said the first time.  Suffice it to say, however, we are not overlooking improvement in this area. The key is choosing what the priorities are and focusing on what it will take to solve this problem, reach objectives, and achieve goals.

So far the individual sounds I’ve chosen to work with are initial H, final S, final Z, and initial EM, as in “employee, (not “umployee”). We’ve worked with TH sounds a little, but TH is more of a problem in certain words, not necessarily all the time. It’s not easy for her, for example, to go from L to voiced TH in “although”. Other TH sounds, both voiced and unvoiced, are not as difficult to produce, but still could use some work.

Additionally, because of the intonation training she’s received so far. she is able to notice how others really speak. She’s more aware now of how her American colleagues speak and how they pronounce English. She improves and makes progress.

So what’s significant about this?

1. She does not have a lot of time to practice. She’s a busy executive, and takes care of a family.
2. Awareness helps her. Practice is necessary, but becoming aware of what you have to change is the first step to changing and improving.
3. Her aptitude is very strong. She can use this training and make it work for her even though her practice time is minimal. Still, I’ll say it again. It’s better to maintain a regular practice schedule.
4. She’s not a perfectionist when it comes to improving her accent or pronunciation. She wants people to understand her the first time and not always ask her to repeat what she says. And this does not mean that she has to sound like a native speaker of American English. Pronunciation, or accent, does not have to be “perfect” in order to develop speech that is more listener friendly and that you can use for your presentations, project updates, weekly reports, and monthly meetings.
5. Again, an intonation-centered approach works best to develop clear speech and speech that is easier to understand. Awareness is an important and valuable first step to improving. Aptitude helps for those who say they don’t have time to practice as much as they really ought to practice. But that does not mean it’s okay to spend only minimal time practicing. With regular practice, determination, and persistence. you will reach your accent and pronunciation goals. You will speak better English. Believe it. Practice it. Do it. It will happen.

Give presentations and come across as clear as a bell to your audience! What  a great feeling that is! Yes, it’s great to overcome English communication challenges and just get on with the project updates, the meetings, client conference calls, and the presentations.

1. Be direct and explicit, not indirect and implicit. Say what you want to say, and justify it after you do so, not before.
2. Whatever you are speaking about, no matter the topic or situation, ask yourself what your listeners want to know and understand. What is the main point? What is most important? That’s what you have to tell them.
3. Don’t start with supporting information, reasons, or details. Provide the main point first, the most important idea that you want to convey.
4. Your opening statements should communicate the main idea or the most important ideas first.
5. Be sure that what you say refers to or relates to what came before it. Be sure that your listeners are not asking themselves what you mean by something because you made no reference to it previously.
6. If you are moving on to new information, be sure to let your listeners know this.

• PAR – Problem Action Result

1. Problem: State the problem.
2. Action: Say what you did or what you are going to do. Keep it short and simple.
3. Result: Tell your listeners what the result is or what it’s going to be.

• PAS – Problem Action Solution

1. Problem: State the problem.
2. Action: Say what you did or what you are going to do. Keep it short and simple.
3. Solution: Tell your listeners what the solution is or what it’s going to be.

• CAR – Challenge Action Result

1. Challenge: Tell your listeners what the challenge is.
2. Action: Say what you did or what you are going to do. Keep it short and simple.
3. Result: Tell your listeners what the result is or what the result is going to be.

• GAR – Goal Action Result

1. Goal: State what you want to accomplish or achieve
2. Action: Say what you did or what you are going to do. Keep it short and simple.
3. Result: Tell your listeners what the result is or what it’s going to be.

It’s not necessary to justify everything you say or include every detail. If people want more information, they will ask for it. Trust yourself to know and recognize what you need to say. Don’t provide too much information. Be sure you provide the most important information first.

Confidence is a huge factor for evaluating clients’ speaking skills in the context of accent reduction and pronunciation improvement. Evaluating confidence and working with people to achieve greater confidence does much to improve communication skills. It is crucial to balance how much of a role accent reduction will play when working to take business English communication skills to the next level. And this applies to people from any language background and any profession.

For English language improvement and development, sometimes, or even oftentimes, accent reduction, or accent modification, must be a component of communication and speaking skills coaching and training. Not taking this holistic top-down approach, or big-picture approach, to accent reduction could cause people to miss out on what they may really need. More than accent reduction, what is it that some internationals really need to be more effective and efficient speakers? They need an approach that addresses business English speaking skills and communication skills. And while that certainly includes accent reduction and pronunciation training, it must include more. International professionals require an approach that incorporates everything into training and coaching that is beneficial for their specific communication needs, objectives, and goals. Sometimes that’s just accent reduction, accent modification, or pronunciation improvement. However, other times it’s not, and recognizing when someone requires more than accent reduction is a highly significant and key factor in reaching professional communication objectives and achieving business communication goals.

Automatically limiting training and coaching to accent reduction, or accent modification, causes a great risk. What is that risk? The risk is that someone’s requirements for professional communication advancement may not be satisfied. Here’s how the thinking goes sometimes:

“Let’s work with only accent reduction now a nd exclude everything else.”  That line of thinking is not practical, it’s not efficient, and it’s not effective.

“After someone makes improvements in accent reduction, we, then, go on to other areas of speaking skills and communication skills.” This is a flawed and linear approach. It is not efficient. If it IS logical, then it’s logic that is flawed.

I recognize and identify specific areas in which speakers from any language background and any profession need to improve so that they can become more effective, efficient, and productive communicators. Sometimes that’s only accent reduction, accent modification, or pronunciation improvement. Other times it’s more. I deal with it, and I work with it so that I can efficiently solve communication problems and bring people’s communication skills to higher levels. This means developing both competency and confidence.

Having said this, I’d like direct your attention to my accent reduction and pronunciation improvement articles at this blog and at another Pro ESL blog, English at Work Boston. It is absolutely necessary to find out what all individuals require in order for them to reach their professional and business communication objectives and communication goals. Again, sometimes this is accent reduction, but other times it’s more than accent reduction.

Accent Reduction Pronunciation - English at Work Boston Blog 

Accent Reduction Boston – Business Blog at Pro ESL – Professional English Skills and Language 

V – A – R – Exaggerate this – The names of the consonants include vowel sounds. Elongate the vowels to make the consonant names sound absolutely clear to your listeners. It’s true that you will hear native speakers of English say something like VAR very quickly. The key to this is that their vowel sounds are very strong. It comes from the throat: the vocal cords and mouth have to work more. This takes strength and the strength is developed with practice and repetition. In order to practice and get the result you want, go slow when you say something like VAR – Veeeee – Aeeiii – aRrrr. Practice by moving your mouth, lips, and tongue in an exaggerated manner to produce clear sounds.

portfoli  o

The syllable that receives primary stress should be prominent. There is a steep drop in intonation from the syllable that receives primary stress to the next syllable. It is important to practice and maintain a wide pitch range for words to be clear. This is another type of exaggerating a sound quality or characteristic of English. In order for characteristics and qualities of English to come through clearly, exaggeration is an essential practice technique for non-native speakers who are improving accent and pronunciation and the overall quality of their speech for the purpose of becoming more effective, productive, and efficient English speakers.

Strong and optimistic voice

1) Give sincere answers. Whatever you say, say it like you mean it. Be real, and say what you really believe, know, and feel. Do not say what you think someone wants to hear. Be confident in what you know, think, and believe, and let the confidence come through in your voice.

2) Be upbeat, positive, and optimistic. You have to sound upbeat, positive, and optimistic. You have to look positive, upbeat, and optimistic. Your demeanor has to be positive, upbeat, and optimistic. Your voice has to smile and have positive energy. The interviewer will hear you smile with your voice and will hear the positive energy in your voice.

3) Be upbeat, positive, and optimistic, but don’t overdo it. Present yourself as a well-balanced person. You are logical and well-reasoned but not too slow to make decisions. Be sure and confident. Let the interviewer know that you can make the difficult decisions and solve problems. You know what to do, so let it come through in your voice.

4) Are you a dynamic person? Prepare yourself to give examples of how you are a dynamic person. But don’t say that you are dynamic. Are you passionate about your work? Let this come through in your voice. But don’t say that you are passionate. Do not say what you are. Be what you are. Talk about who you are and what you are by talking about what you do and how you do it.

Absolute confidence and certainty

5) Be direct. Don’t try to explain before you say what you believe or think. Say it, and then provide a brief explanation. Explain more if the interviewer asks. Do not give answers that make it sound as though you are providing an opinion or a viewpoint. Give answers that are strong and meaningful statements. Say how you know it is; don’t say how you think it is. They will hire you for what you know and can do, not for what you think you know and not for what you think you can do. Do not, even in the slightest way, express doubt. You must be absolutely confident and certain in what you say.

6) Be prepared for anything? How? Don’t try to give the right answer. Any answer you give is correct because you are an executive: a decision maker, an expert, a leader. If they don’t like your answers, and they do not hire you, analyze your performance and consider what you might have done or said that was wrong. Or consider what you did not do and did not say. Also, consider that this just might not have been the right company or right place for you for any number of reasons. Above all, be confident in what you say and express nothing but absolute certainty in what you say and how you say it.

7)  You can appeal to people in three ways: 1) logic and reason 2) sincerity, genuineness, and honesty 3) emotion, sentiment, feeling. You have to strike a chord.

• Scroll down to number 12: http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/strike_1
• Trigger a feeling http://www.answers.com/topic/strike-a-chord

8) To some extent, you should dramatize what you say. Don’t just say that you motivate people. Speak like a motivator. Speak like a motivator. Let the interviewer conclude that you are a motivator by how you speak – how you come across. Are you ready to charge up the hill and lead? Are you ready to plant your company’s flag at the top of the mountain? Yes, you are. The interviewer or hiring manager has to know this by how you tell a success story, an accomplishment story, or a story about how you solved a huge problem. You have to be the hero of your story. What did you do? What were the results? How did it make you feel? How did it make others feel? What did it do for the department? What did it do for the company? What action did you take? What were the benefits? What were the results? Prepare yourself to talk about action and results.

Why should I hire you? Be sure you know how to answer this question. And then be the person the interviewer wants to hire during the interview. This means be yourself, and be who you are. You’re an expert. You are highly skilled and knowledgeable. Be who you are, not who you think the interviewer wants you to be. You are asking them to hire YOU, not someone else. Who are you, and why should I hire you?

 2) Be confident.

Exude confidence while being sure that you do not come across as overbearing or arrogant. Speak to the interviewer as a colleague. Treat the interview as a business conversation. You are an investment. Tell interviewers why they should invest in you. Minimize what the interviewer perceives of as risk. Without confidence, it’s not easy for people to know and understand how competent and skilled you are. Exude confidence.

 3) Do not try to fix your English before an interview.

If your English proficiency concerns you, do not let it concern you. This will only shake your confidence or throw you off in some way. Again, if making errors concerns you, do not let it concern you. Work on this some other time. Don’t try to do this one or two weeks before an interview. Your English language ability is good enough. If it were not good enough, you would not be interviewing for this position. The content of your replies to questions and speaking prompts is important, and the image you portray while delivering the content is important. Work on the quality of your content and how you come across while delivering the content.

 4) Speak up.

Be a proactive contributor to the conversation. Don’t wait for the interviewer to ask you about the good stuff before you say the good stuff. Listen for opportunities to say the good stuff and then say the good stuff. Success stories, accomplishment stories, and problem solving stories are the good stuff. Tell short and quick stories in which you are the hero that solved problems, reached objectives, and achieved goals.

 5) Promote yourself.

Listen for opportunities to say something about how you can contribute. Listen for opportunities in the conversation to talk about your skills, ability, and knowledge. Give examples of how you solved problems, reached objectives, and achieved goals. How did you use your skills, ability, and knowledge? And what were the results?

When dealing with complex systems and information, someone could make an error. People need to know when information is not accurate so that the mistake can be corrected and whatever information system you’re working with can be updated with correct information.

The communication flow should be open, and you should feel comfortable communicating. It is important to communicate effectively and efficiently in order to ensure that information is accurate. Everyone can move on when they know that system information is accurate and up to date.

• Here are some opening sentences and sentence starters that can help you say what you need to say. Follow these sentences with whatever applies to your work. Change them as necessary in order to apply them to your work.

1) I noticed something is not matching. Can you, please, take a look at this and tell me what you think?

2) I think there might be an issue with these codes. Could you, please, take a look at them with me?

3) Could you, please, take a look at this? I’m not certain that this information is correct.

4) Do you know whether or not this has been updated?

5) I’m not certain that this information is current. Can you take a look at it, please?

6) Can you help me out here? Something doesn’t seem right about this.

7) Can you, please, take a look at this description? I thought it had been changed, but now it’s the same as it was before.

8) If you’re not too busy now, could you, please, take a look at this? Something about this doesn’t seem right.

• Complete the sentences in a way that applies to your work. Rewrite the sentence starters as necessary so that you can apply them to your work.

9) Can you, please, verify that this is the correct code? I can’t be sure that it’s correct because it does not match

10) Do you have minute?  I’m not sure if this                                                                  is correct.

11) As far as I know this is supposed to                                                       , but for some reason

12) Could you, please, verify                                        ?

13) Do you know what’s going on with this                                        ?

14) Do you happen to have any ideas what’s happening with this                                        ?

Eight tips for communicating at meetings

1) Be positive by balancing something you say that is negative with something that is positive. If you speak about something that needs to be improved, also, suggest ways to improve it. Be optimistic.

2) Don’t be too humble. Find the right level or degree of assertiveness in your communication style. Be confident. Be direct by stating what you conclude first without trying to explain it. Be prepared to provide reasons for what you say.

3) Speak up. Let people know that you have something to contribute. We use the phrase “bring to the table”, as in “Karla brings a lot to the table”. This means that Karla has something to offer and contribute. What do you bring to the table?

4) If someone asks your opinion or view of something, be honest. Of course, you should be tactful in how you communicate something negative about another person’s idea or view. Your communication style should not be so indirect that it interferes with getting things done, achieving a goal, or getting a result.

5) If you say something negative about another person’s view or idea, this does not mean you are saying something negative about the person. However, once again, be sure that you are tactful in how you state your views or criticism, and be prepared to provide a reason or reasons for what you say.

6) If you don’t understand something, ask a question. It is no one’s fault that you do not understand. Sometimes people need more clarification or more information in order to understand something. Some people understand more quickly than others. Don’t let people believe that you understand when you do not. Your silence is an indication that you understand. You have to let people know you do not understand.

7) If someone says something during a discussion that you like a lot, that you find agreeable, or that appeals to you, let that person know. People like to know that others appreciate and like their views and ideas.

8) If someone asks whether or not you agree with something, be direct. If you disagree, use tactful language to do so. While it’s important to keep things positive and for everyone to feel good (group harmony), meetings have more to do with achieving goals and getting things done. However, once again, use tact if you disagree. Showing respect for what others think or believe is important, but this should not be at the expense of reaching objectives, achieving goals, and getting things done.

Asking questions and saying “I don’t know”

1) Don’t worry about telling someone that you don’t know something. If it’s something that you can find out but just don’t know at the moment, explain this and say when you’ll have the information that someone needs. Be sure to follow up. If you don’t know something and can’t get the information yourself, simply say so. Ask for help if it’s necessary.

2) If you have a question, it could be helpful to say, “I have a question”, and then ask your question. This helps people know with certainty that you are asking a question.

3) If you don’t understand something, don’t be shy about asking for help. If your tone of voice sounds polite, your colleagues will be glad to help you. Ask for help or ask for an explanation if you don’t understand something.

Statement and question intonation

4) If you ask a yes-no question, be sure to use rising intonation. This lets people know with more certainty that you are asking a question and not telling them something.

5) If you ask an information question, meaning a question that begins with what, when, where, which, who, how, or why, start with higher intonation. Starting with higher intonation requires a little more volume. End with intonation that drops off or falls. For falling intonation, your volume will be a little lower. If you start with a question word, or a w-h word, starting higher and ending lower helps people understand you better. Good intonation for English will help people understand you better.

6) If you’re telling someone something, which is to say providing information or making a statement, be sure your intonation drops off or falls at the end. This will help ensure that people know you’re not asking a question and that you’re telling them something, which is to say making a statement.

Providing information

7) When you speak to someone, say what’s important first, and then go on to explanations, additional information, and details.

8) Be sure to provide enough information. Sometimes people don’t know as much as you might think they know. Providing sufficient information is important, and people will appreciate it.

9) Remember that it’s up to you to be sure that people know what you mean to say. If people have questions, they’ll ask. However, if information is missing, they might not always know that information is missing. So start with the main or most important idea, and then provide relevant and important information to be sure that people know what you mean.

Direct communication

10) Don’t worry about pointing out information that is not correct. People won’t automatically believe that you are trying to point out someone’s error. However, be tactful when you communicate. How we say something is just as important as what we say. The goal is to make progress and be sure that information is accurate.

11) If you don’t understand what your colleague says, don’t let the moment pass. Tell your colleague that you don’t understand. Ask your colleague to say it again or to explain it again. If you think that hearing it more slowly will help you, then you should say so.

12) If you don’t agree with something, it’s important to let people know. Again, how we say something is just as important as what we say. Holding back and not letting people know that you disagree with something or that you partially agree with something won’t help your team or department move forward and make progress. Just remember to be tactful. How we say something is just as important as what we say.

As part of his answer to “Tell me about yourself”, a Turkish pharmaceutical research analyst stated a list of all his degrees and academic accomplishments.

No, you don’t want to say that.

But why?

It’s already on your résumé, and that’s enough. The interviewers value what you did, have done, and are going to do for their organization if you are hired. Or they want to know what your professional acheivements are. Again, your education is on your résumé. If they want to know more about that, they’ll ask.

And as part of his answer to “Tell me about yourself”, the same person started a sentence with, “I am responsible for” and another sentence with, “I was responsible for”.

No, you don’t want to say that.

But why?

They don’t care about your responsibilities. Being responsible doesn’t mean that you do, have done, or did anything. They only want to know what you did, have done, do, and what you’re going to do. So take the verb “be” and the adjective “responsible, and change them to “I + VERB” . Say “I do” or, of course, use the appropriate verb for whatever it is you do. What do you do? What have you done? What did you do? What are going to do?

To continue, as part of his answer to “Tell me about yourself”, he started one sentence like this, “I’m comfortable with (system or program)”, and he started another sentence with, “I’m pretty good at”.

No, you don’t want to say , “I’m comfortable with” and “I’m pretty good at”.

But why?

They sound weak, and that sort of language doesn’t make you sound confident. Employers want confident people. Confidence could be a measure of competence. Would you say that you are very competent with these systems or programs and that you are excellent at working with them? Do you have a lot of, or sufficient, experience with these systems and programs?

Yes, of course.

Okay, then that’s what you have to say. “I have a lot of experience with XYZ, so I’m competent with XYZ, and I’m excellent at working with XYZ.” How do these answers translate and come across? To employment interviewers they say you can use this knowledge and these skills at their company. Saying that you are “comfortable” with doing something and that you are “pretty good at” doing something does not sound as though you will definitely be able to use this knowledge and these skills effectively at their company.

Employment Interview Tip: Be prepared to tell three or four success stories. Tell about problems you solved. It should take up to two minutes to tell each story. These sort of success stories or stories about how you solved problems are sometimes called “vignettes”.  At an employment interview, be prepared to tell a few two-minute stories. And there’s something else: You have to be the hero of your story.