Mastering the American Accent with Online Audio (Barron's Foreign Language Guides)

Are you sometimes misunderstood by your American co-workers or customers - even though you have lived in the United Staes for years? Do you sometimes mispronounce words causing needless confusion and sometimes stress? Do you give professional presentations and want the native English speaking audience to clearly understand your words and ideas? Have you been looking for an excellent self-study guide to improve your American English pronunciation? If so, you will find this exceptional pronunciation book and audio CDs quite helpful in "mastering the American accent." Written by Lisa Mojsin, a Santa Monica professor and linguist who works with professionals to gain an American accent, this systematic book respects the time, intelligence, linguistic needs, and social desires of English language learners. Each self-contained chapter provides a practical lesson with clear instructions. The compelling CDs provide an effective tool to hear and practice the sounds. I also appreciate the number of inspiring quotes throughout the book that recognize the sophistication and culture of the book's readers. Like Targeting Pronunciation Communicating Clearly in English (Book with 5 CDs) , Mastering the American Accent with Audio CDs systematically reviews the most difficult sounds and easily confused words in English for ESL and EFL students and provides excellent audio CDS. And like Planaria Price's outstanding Realistically Speaking: A Practical Approach to the Basic Sounds and Rhythms of American English , Mojsin provides a cultural context and bias toward what works in creating the core sounds in American English for adult immigrants. This excellent pronunciation book, however, combines the best parts of both Targeting Pronunciation and Realistically Speaking in a powerful, practical book that identifies effective methods to reduce accents and improve clarity for business professionals. As an ESL teacher who focuses more on fluency and comprehension than pronunciation drills and absolute mastery of American accents, I learned many valuable tips from this book. This book will make me a better teacher in correcting pronunciation errors, especially for professionals who are already basically comprehensible and still want to "sound like an American". This book is a real contribution and fills a clear need in the increasingly diverse American workplace. If you only buy one pronunciation book to improve your American English, this is it.

I get so tired of bad reviews by people who don't bother to read the directions and, instead, complain that no CDs are included. No, they're not, because most computers don't come with CD players anymore. That's why the author has kindly put all 390 audio files ON THE WEBSITE FOR DOWNLOADING to your computer, phone, tablet, or other digital device AND has put the directions for downloading on the inside of the front cover of the book. This is a great book. The audio files are clear with correct Standard American English accents and use both male and female voices. I only wish there were also audio tracks for the very last section of the book that covers problem words for native speakers of various languages. The first part of the book provides practice in vowel and consonant pronunciation, first at a basic level, and then in more depth. I found only two small errors in this section, which is in contrast to some popular books that consistently provide incorrect pronunciation guidelines in this area. The section on "The Various t Sounds of American English" in the "Problematic Consonants" chapter is second-to-none. The chapters on syllable stress, including some coverage of prefixes and suffixes, and word stress, including reduction, are also quite good, as is the section on problems specific to native speakers of various languages. There is also a brief section on intonation. Overall, I find this book to be a very useful book for introducing the intricacies of the American accent.

I bought the book to use with a student I tutor. I almost didn't buy it; I was more interested in another book (Pronunciation Pairs), which I bought at the same time. It is fortunate that I decided to include this in my purchase, as the other book turned out to be a great disappointment. If you are considering Pronunciation Pairs, don't get it; this one is much better. This book comes with four great CDs that cover all the listening exercises. There is a 'Native Language Guide' that gives special tips to help speakers overcome problems related to their native tongue. Also, this book addresses prosidy (although the word 'prosidy' is not used). Prosidy, the rhythm and melody of speech, is very important in English. This book covers such prosidy concepts as thought groups, focus words, content words, and function words. If a student does not learn the proper English prosidy, he will not only have speech problems, but will also have problems understanding the spoken word. For instance, when initially tested, my student could hear no difference between "Is that Mr. Fogg?" and "is that mist, or fog?" We are currently focusing more on reading and writing, to prepare my student for the English exams he has to take in school, however, when we work on speech and listening this is the main book we will use, and I believe it will be very effective.

An ESL student making the mistakes is most commonly drawing false inferences about English based on patterns in his or her own language. Therefore it is probably incorrect to call it an accent if English is not his or her first language (unlike American, British, Canadian, or Australian accent). Therefore to put it bluntly (although it may offend some people) what most non-native English speakers have, is not exactly an "Indian" or "French" accent, but rather they are most likely making pronunciation mistakes. This problem is more pronounced if his or her native language is almost obsessively phonetic (e.g. Spanish, Indian Languages like Hindi). English is so far from phonetic that native and non-native English speakers often don't even really understand what a "vowel" really is. They'll happily recite "a e i o u and sometimes y", but the concept is lost. A lot of the so-called vowels in English are actually diphthongs. This book helps in understanding some of the language problems experienced by the non-native speakers. The book is really good, and I highly recommend it, but it does have some limitations. It primarily suffers from three major weaknesses. 1) Lack of videos: You need videos describing in great detail how to pronounce various sounds in American English. 2) Lack of IPA: IPA is the standard phonetic alphabet used by linguists all over the world. Here is what IPA-based phonetic transcription looks like: newton /ˈnuːtən/. I believe all English words are difficult if you are not a native speaker. The book provides various word pairs for practice and practice sentences, but does not provide their IPA-based phonetic transcriptions. For example the word "developed". Is it pronounced as /ˈdɛʋləpd/ or as /dɪˈvɛləpt/? 3) Native language guide is woefully incomplete. I believe that, this is probably the most important part of any accent training book as most mistakes are from drawing false inferences about English based on patterns in native language. I am here using Indian Languages section as an example: Although this section has mentioned various problems suffered by native speakers of Indian languages like confusion between /v/ and /w/ sounds, rolled /r/, and the mispronounced "th" sounds, it suffers from some glaring omissions. For example a) The voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /k/ are always unaspirated in Indian English and aspirated in word-initial or stressed syllable in General American. Therefore Indian /p/, /t/, /k/ sound like /b/, /d/, /g/ to Americans. b) Indians pronounce "t" and "d" sounds with their tongue tip curled and placed too far back (retroflex) in their mouths. This creates a "heavier" sound than the American English (alveolar)""t" and "d" sounds. The "d" sound thus sounds thicker or heavier, while the "t" sound, sounds similar to the American English "d. c) Indian English uses clear [l] in all instances and does not use Dark l. Although, it will not cause misunderstanding, but may contribute to non-native accent. d) All consonants are distinctly doubled (lengthened) in most varieties of Indian English wherever the spelling suggests so. e.g., <drilling> becomes /ˈdrilliŋɡ/ rather than /ˈdriliŋ/ e) In words where the digraph <gh> represents a voiced velar plosive (/ɡ/), some Indian English speakers supply a murmured version [ɡʱ], for example <ghost> [ɡʱoːst]. ("Ghost" is, though mentioned in Indonesian section of the book) f) Function words which are weak in American English (of, to, etc.) tend not to be reduced in Indian English. g) In unstressed syllables, which speakers of American English would realize as a schwa, speakers of Indian English would use the spelling vowel, making <sanity> sound as [ˈsæniti] instead of [ˈsænəti]. h) In India people Use [d] instead of [t] for the "-ed" ending of the past tense after voiceless consonants, for example "developed" may be pronounced as [ˈdɛʋləpd] instead of /dɪˈvɛləpt/. i) Dipthongs oʊ and eɪ: indians tend to replace them with monophthongs / o:/ and / e: / Suggestions to overcome limitations of this book: 1) Go to online Merriam-Webster's LEARNER's Dictionary and listen to audio recordings of 3000 most common words or buy this dictionary Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary and learn the pronunciation of 3000 most common words provided in the dictionary (You need to learn IPA) It is an extremely useful tool and is practically the only useful dictionary in market for non-native English speakers who are interested in learning American pronunciation. Merriam-Webster's COLLEGIATE Dictionary Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Laminated Cover) is not useful for non-native speakers as it does NOT use IPA symbols and British dictionaries cannot be trusted for American English pronunciations. (Sorry Collins COBUIILD, which is the BEST Learner's dictionary for non-native English (ESL) students in the market Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary: Hardcover with CD-ROM ) For example BrE and AmE pronunciations of /ɔ/ are DIFFERENT. AmE /ɔ/ is more like /ɑ/. BrE "pause" is almost like pose, while AmE is /ˈpɑ:z/ and has the same /ɑ/ sound as in "father" and "watch. 2) Go to "Rachel's English" channel on you tube. Her videos describes in great detail how to pronounce various sounds in American English. 3) Supplement your knowledge with other online resources, especially regarding negative influence of the learner's mother tongue when he or she is speaking or writing English. In brief, this is a very good and affordable book and you should buy it, but you will need to supplement it with other information in order to be able to acquire American accent.

I recently had the pleasure of reading Mastering the American Accent by Lisa Mojsin, and I can confidently say it’s one of the most practical and well-structured resources available for anyone looking to improve their American English pronunciation. What makes this book stand out is its clear, step-by-step approach. The lessons are thoughtfully organized, guiding you from the fundamentals of sounds to more advanced elements like stress, rhythm, and intonation. The integration of audio support makes a real difference, allowing you to hear and immediately apply what you learn. I especially appreciated the focus on real challenges non-native speakers face, vowel sounds, tricky consonants, and natural speech flow, explained in a way that is both technical and accessible. Whether you’re a professional, a content creator, or simply someone who wants to sound more confident and natural in American English, this book is a valuable investment. Highly recommended.

I saw several reviews saying the audio was not downloadable, yet I decided to buy it because: 1. The cover says "includes downloadable audio of all the exercises" 2. I saw a review that said people was not reading the instructions, and that you would be able to download the audio after following the steps described in the book 3. There's a video of the author on the Amazon page of the book clarifying and assuring that audio was BOTH accessible online AND downloadable Well, I got the book yesterday, registered to Barron's page (the publisher) today and I don't see any way to download the online audio. I already sent an email to both Barron and Lisa's website to ask for instructions on how to download the audio. If I ever get an answer I'll remove this comment and change the rating; content seems to be very valuable, but with no downloadable audio and only 1-year of online access to the audio content, this book wouldn't be useful as a reference for years to come, so I'll be returning it and leave this comment if I don't get an answer after 1 week.

No audio download, but very helpful

This book is well-structured and easy to follow. The practical exercises effectively target intonation and stress in American pronunciation. The online audio materials are easily accessible and greatly enhance the learning experience. Despite some negative reviews about audio access, I had no issues at all. Overall, it’s an excellent resource for anyone looking to improve their American accent. Highly recommended!

Worth every penny! People started noticing my accent improved. I’m really happy with the results.

アメリカのブロードキャスティング・イングリッシュ（標準的な綺麗な発音）が身に着く本です。 ネイティブではない人、英語を第２外国語として身に着けたい人を対象として書かれているので、説明が親切で平易に表現されています。 （読み上げは明瞭ですがネイティブスピードに近いです） この手の洋書ではかなり安価なほうにもかかわらず一冊完結なのは本当にありがたい。 「ネイティブらしい発話はどうすべきか」というようなコーナーもありますし、更には綺麗な英語発音をマスターした非英語話者たちの体験談（CDに肉声で収録）がところどころに挿入されている。 非英語話者の事を真剣に考えて作ったであろうことが伺えます。 内容としては、 ・母音、子音の発音 ・つづりと発音の法則 ・読まない語（末尾のt、dなど） ・リンキング（リエゾン。単語尾と次の単語頭をつなげる） ・イントネーション が網羅されており、中身は4枚のCDに収められています。 CDと本文は全く同じではありませんが、その理由は、CDのみでもざっと学習できるよう、文言を変えてあるからです。 CDのほうがやや短く省略され、本当に重要な事のみ読み上げているようです。 テキストが大きく、いつでもどこでも持ち歩くというわけにはいきません。 なので、iPhoneやiPodだけでも学習ができるのは非常に便利です。 私は通勤の車内でシャドーイング（ナレーションまで全部真似）しており、一度ざっと本に目を通せば、本が無くても音声だけで復習ができるのが最高。 このクオリティのCDが付属した教材はかなり少ないと思います。 CD1枚が80〜90トラックに分かれておりかなり細かくセクション分けされています。 しかも本文横にトラックナンバーがきちんとふられているのでいつでも、テキストと一緒に使う時は便利ですね。 これを1通りやった後にアメリカの洋画を日本語字幕・英語音声で見たら、この本の中の音声とイントネーションやスピードがそっくりでかなり聞き取れました。 発音しない語（getの語尾を発音しなかったり、文章内のheを、「イー」などと省略する等）もこの本で一通り基本を教えてもらえたので、ある程度聴き取る事ができるようになっていて驚きました。 TOEICテストでもリスニングパートが細かい部分まで余裕で聞き取れるようになりスコアが大幅UP。 この本を買って数年たちますが、今ではTOEICのリスニングのみ、9割以上の正答率まで上昇しています。 in useシリーズ（1冊4000円×3冊分冊）とかなり迷いましたが、これにして本当に良かったと思います。 過去に日本で出版された英語舌などを読みましたが音声がついていてもなかなか理解できず 全く上達しませんでした。 日本語で「細かく」説明されているんですが、それを頭で考えてしまうからかな？ それらとこの本では、身に着き方、理解が比ではありません。こういうのは、頭で原理を考えて習うより、さっさとモノマネして慣れろ！ってことだと思うのです。 最初はナレーションが聞き取れないかもしれませんが、母音や子音、例の単語や例文を繰り返し真似ているうちに どんどん身に着いて行きます。 時間さえあれば常に流して音写する、その際恥ずかしがらずにどんどん口に出す、というのをお勧めします。 ぼんやりしていてもシャドーイングは可能。 そういう時のほうが、かえって左脳を通さずに「感覚に落とし込める」のでおすすめです。 少しでもさぼるとすぐ戻ってしまうので、とにかく短時間でも根気強くやる必要があります。 同居人は「毎日真面目にやっている時はネイティブみたいに喋ってるけど暫くさぼると、また日本人英語に戻るね〜」と言っています。 頭で英語を理解しているが話せない、TOEICや英検で高い点数を取れるのだが話しても通じない、という方にはイチオシ。 この本と同じように簡単な説明まで吹き込まれたもので Pronounce It Perfectly In English という本もありますが、 そちらのほうはやや説明文がわかりにくいかな・・・という印象でした。 イギリス英語で同等の本を探していますが今のところ見つからないのが残念です。

O livro explica todos fonemas do sotaque americano. O conteúdo do livro é todo disponibilizado em áudio para download no site da editora. Um dos pontos fortes é a parte que mostra as dificuldades específicas dos falantes de Português, Espanhol, Japonês, Russo, Francês etc. Excelente para todos que buscam uma pronúncia precisa e clara do inglês americano.

best book with audio support must go for this ...brought it with my scholarship money and I don't regret about it ....got to know about this from YTchannel-linguamarina

Acabo de recibir el libroy es muy bueno pero no funciona el link para bajarte los audios tan necesario pues el libro sin el audio no tiene sentido. Alguien sabe cómo poder acceder a los audios?