Accent Neutralization Manual

Dominican Republic

Voice and Accent

Training Manual

Global Operations Support

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Lesson 1: The Vowel Sounds And Their Symbols 7

Lesson 2: The Consonant Sounds And Their Symbols 15

Lesson 3: Word Stress And Sentence Stress 23

Lesson 4: Intonation 31

Lesson 5: Rhythm 36

Lesson 6: Sound \a\ 42

Lesson 7: Sounds \ā\ and \ä\ 55

Lesson 8: Sounds \e\ and \ē\ 64

Lesson 9: Sounds \i\ and \ī\ 73

Lesson 10: Sounds \ō\ and \ô\ 85

Lesson 11: Sounds \oo\ and \yoo\ 96

Lesson 12: Sounds \ōō\ and \yōō\ 106

Lesson 13: Sounds \oi\ and \ou\ 115

Lesson 14: Sounds \u\ and \μ\ 123

Lesson 15: Sounds \ə\ \’l\ and \’n\ 132

Lesson 16: Sounds \p, \t\ and \k\ 142

Lesson 17: Sounds \b, \d\ and \g\ 151

Lesson 18: Sounds \m, \n\ and \ŋ\ 161

Lesson 19: Sounds \f\ and \v\ 170

Lesson 20: Sounds \s\ and \z\ 179

Lesson 21: Sounds \l\ and \r\ 187

Lesson 22: Sounds \h, \hw\ and \w\ 194

Lesson 23: Sounds \j\ \zh\ and \y\ 208

Lesson 24: Sounds \ch\ and \sh\ 218

Lesson 25: Sounds \th\ and \th\ 228

Lesson 26: Simple Sentence 239

Lesson 27: Modifiers And Determiners 248

Lesson 28: The Compound Sentence 256

Lesson 29: The Complex Sentence 262

Lesson 30: The Compound-Complex Sentence 267

Lesson 31: Adjectives And Adverbs 274

Lesson 32: Participles, Gerunds And Infinitives 283

4

Introduction

This handbook is the result of a collaborative effort involving personnel at many levels. It also is the result of a comprehensive baseline assessment, on-site observation, in-house and outside expertise in the field of voice and accent training.

The objective of this Training Handbook is to provide the best and most effective Voice and Accent Training for Customer Care Representatives (CCRs) in Santo Domingo, working for the Scuba Project. Its intentional narrow focus on three Training Parts reduces the training course to 32 hours of classroom training In ideal conditions, trainees will attend four hours a day for eight days.

The Training Course is to be delivered in 32 one-hour lessons. It includes five introductory lessons that aim at helping the trainees become acquainted with the major components of American English phonetics: one lesson on vowel sounds, one lesson on consonant sounds, a third lesson on word stress and sentence stress, a fourth lesson on intonation and the fifth lesson on rhythm.

The main body of the course consists of three Parts. Part One and Part Two deal with specific vowel sounds (10 lessons) and consonant sounds (10 lessons).

Each of the 20 lessons in Parts One and Two begin with a Section on Sounds followed by drills designed to perfect the trainee’s production of the sound or sounds they have just learned. Words used for the drills include the most frequently used words in everyday life and those the trainee finds in the training course. Drills are designed both for the classroom sessions and for self-training at home

The first section is followed by a Section on Stress which deals with word stress and sentence stress. Drills include lists of words with one, two or more stressed syllables

The third section is a Section on Grammar that offers both descriptive grammar (how most people in America write and speak, not how they should) by using everyday American English expressions in short sentences, and prescriptive grammar, providing reminders on basic grammar

The fourth section, a Section on Intonation and Rhythm, deals with intonation and the flow of spoken American English. Final tones, mid-sentence tones and special uses of tones are taught through examples. The flow of the spoken language will be acquired by trainees while they familiarize themselves with English poetry reading. Along with poetry, strongly rhythmic prose may be used to help trainees acquire the right rhythm of American English.

We recently added Section Five, which offers dialogues for role play. The dialogue aims at making it possible for trainers and trainees to see how fluent and articulate the trainees are becoming during the training course, and how they have improved in conversing in a wide range of subjects related to their job.

5

In Part Three, drawing from lessons learned, focus is put on grammar, aiming at helping our CCRs build and use short then longer and longer sentences. Prescriptive grammar continues with more reminders on basic grammar rules. Also in Part Three we offer more drills to help our CCRs conquer the most persistent problems they have encountered in producing certain sounds, and more drills on rhythm.

To dramatically change the accent of trainees, who have been speaking English in a certain way for years within two weeks will not be easy, however, with total confidence in the merits of this Training Manual and with dedication and attention to detail, the trainers will be able to help trainees make significant and measurable improvements in sounds, stress, tones and rhythm as they progress through the training course. With follow-up self-training, the graduated trainees will be able to speak perfect American English within a short time.

That is our ultimate goal.

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