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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

Title: 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

Author: Beverly A. Lujan
Format: Book + CDs
List Price: $79.00
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Amazon USA Price: $79.00

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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


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Editorial Reviews
Lakshmi Venkatachulam, LAKSH Institute for Language and Accent Training, Bombay
The most comprehensive resource. It has all the tools necessary to reduce accent and to develop American rhythm and pronunciation.

Product Description:
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.


Product Details
  • Paperback: 230 pages
  • Publisher: Lingual Arts; 2nd Bk&CD edition (January, 2004)
  • ISBN: 0963413945
  • Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 7.2 x 10.0 inches
  • Average Customer Review: based on 6 reviews.



Spotlight Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

If you want a solid fundamental, August 26, 2004

Reviewer: S. Lam "A tech guy" (Oakland, CA United States)

This book & CDs are use to build a solid fundamental for American English speaking, and I put the CDs at the car and listen while I drive.
Most content in the book are include in the CD, it's all simple English so if you study the book once you know what words they're speaking for. Why I said this because many single words in the CDs share same / similiar pronunciation, if you don't read the book first you can't distinguish it.
The CD voices are articulate / high quality. I found it especially good for Asian because most learn British English under their education systems.
Don't expect you will improve your English level by finish this book. As the title suggest, it'll only improve your speaking style. You still need to watch TV, listen to radio, do more reading, and talk as much as you can.
Thank you for all previous reviewers' opinions because I don't have time and money to try every products in the market.


Customer Reviews
Avg. Customer Review:

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

A Speech Pathologist's Tool, September 21, 2004

Reviewer: Toby L. Langstaff "Speech Pathologist" (Villa Park, CA)

I have found great success using The American Accent Guide in my speech pathology practice. This excellent sequential program of verbal exercises is complete as well as fun. The American Accent Guide,as a resource provides my clients with wonderful practice activities which target all of the nuances of American English. I highly recommend this program to non-native individuals who desire improvement in their communicative effectiveness.Toby L. Langstaff, M.A. CCC.


27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

The most comprehensive book I have found, July 10, 2004

Reviewer: Maria Blees (Seattle, WA)

I checked out all the accent training materials I could find from the library and I believe this one to be the best. (I looked at the following: American Accent Guide, American Accent Training, Pronounce It Perfectly in English, American English Pronunciation Program, How to Speak English without an Accent, and EasyAccent. I also looked at Well Said, and do not recommend it for self-teaching.)
So you know who this review is coming from: I'm a native speaker of American English and lifelong linguistics enthusiast. I investigated these accent reduction systems at the request of a non-native speaker looking to improve his accent, and I became fascinated with the variety of offerings out there (many of which were woefully incomplete). Although I have not personally used these systems, I hope my analysis as a native speaker will be helpful to some! Perhaps I'll have more to add later when I see it put to use.
Of the materials I looked at, I prefer Lujan's (the item being reviewed) for the following reasons:
1. It is at the top in comprehensiveness. The only other program I found in the self-teaching category that was comparable was Ann Cook's American Accent Training. (Note: I did not look at Donna Hope's American English Pronunciation, which was mentioned by another reviewer--that may be good as well.) All the others described individual sounds (some less helpfully than others), but in the areas of linking, rhythm, and intonation, their coverage ranged from partial to non-existent, and was sometimes misleading.
2. It has the most accurate and complete method of explaining and transcribing rhythm and intonation, in my opinion. As mentioned, none of the other methods but Cook's covered this area extensively, and I believe it to be extremely important. Both Lujan and Cook indicate the great importance of rhythm and intonation in accent, but have devised different methods of explanation and transcription. I felt Lujan's was more complete, and when I read the examples aloud (and listened to the audio), the transcription matched perfectly in all cases. I did not feel quite as comfortable with Cook's in that regard.
3. It does a good job of offering examples of regional speech which the reader might encounter, while letting the reader know they are non-standard. This is arguably valuable, but what I think is particularly important is *not encouraging* the reader to use unnecessary speech patterns. This is one thing I did not like about Cook's presentation and part of the reason I prefer Lujan's. Cook has a section on merging words together and gives examples and exercises along the lines of "pronounce 'did you' as 'didju'." This is definitely not necessary, and as a native speaker, I do not make these links and find them annoying to hear. Anyone reading Cook's book would do well to ignore this section.
My overall recommendation:
Get Lujan's American Accent Guide. If you are really into it and want something else--which wouldn't be necessary, by the way--or you need a pep talk, get Cook's as well. (But don't start saying "didju"!) I probably wouldn't try to reconcile the chapters on intonation from both of those--I'd just stick with Lujan's. If you are not super motivated to go through a comprehensive program, or want some "light listening" on your off days, you might also get Pronounce It Perfectly in English from the library. It is lacking, but not that bad for basic information (though again, I believe the intonation part is a little inconsistent).
Bottom line:
If you're only going to get one book on improving your accent, get the American Accent Guide. It's good stuff.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

most comprehensive and accurate I've found, June 4, 2004

Reviewer: Maria B (Seattle, WA)

See my review on the 1st edition for a comparative analysis of this book with others. (I believe this edition is basically a superset of the last one, but they don't seem to be linked on amazon, so I'm doing it myself.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

The knowledge I get is matchless., March 9, 2004

Reviewer: "tiptipak" (Arlington, TX USA)

This gem provides me the complete guidance to the correct sounds that Americans speak and the practical and easy steps to follow. I improve not only my speaking, but my listening also.

Gradually, I notice myself having more fun and more confidence when facing Americans. Hardly hear their embarrassing "I-beg-your-pardon?" responses anymore.

Supun Tiptipakorn
Ph.D. student (Electrical Engineering)
The University of Texas, Arlington

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

The Real American Accent!!!!, February 28, 2004

Reviewer: jorge alves nunes (Pittsburgh, PA USA)

I am from Brazil. I come to the USA twice a year in order to practice my English and visit my dear friends as well. They live in Pennysylvania. I really like the eastern USA accent. Anyway, everytime I come here I buy a book which is on American Accent.
I was really fortunate this year because I got The American Accent Guide 2nd Edition which is just awesome.
I'm enjoying soooo much studying it and using the CDs,which the sound quality is superb and totally understandable.
The more I study it , the more I like it. I have improved my pronunciation and intelligibility of my English using this new 2nd Edition by Beverly A. Lujan.
The American Accent Guide 2nd Edition is a great tool for anyone who wants to learn the REAL AMERICAN ACCENT. It is very well written and hard to put down once you start studying
it.

I can highly recommend this SUPERB 2nd Edition to anyone who wants to improve their american accent.

Jorge Alves Nunes
Brazil

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