How long have you been studying the American Accent? Are you getting tired of your slow progress?

There could be some issues that you have not yet resolved – and these issues are most likely affecting your accent. As a result, you are not able to speak English as well as you would like to.

In this post, we’ll tackle some of these commonly ignored issues and teach you how to address them.

Self-Confidence Issues

There are two main issues related to self-confidence when it comes to speaking with an accent:

1. You might feel embarrassed about your foreign accent when you speak in English. This might cause you to avoid speaking in English altogether. You might also feel worried or anxious whenever you need to speak in English and this can prevent you from practicing properly and improving your accent.
2. You know how to make the sounds of American English, but you feel embarrassed to make the same sounds as a native speaker. This may be due to shyness or some other cause.

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Lack of Knowledge on Vowel Sounds

Yes, there are only officially A, E, I, O, U as the vowels in American English, but in spoken English, there are several ways to speak each of these vowel sounds.

If you are not a native speaker of English, then you have to actively train yourself in order to recognize these sounds and then speak them.

If you lack knowledge about these vowel sounds, then you might be either:

1. Substituting the vowel sounds of your native language for the actual American vowel sounds.
2. You might be using the same vowel sound every time. (Remember that there are several ways of speaking each vowel sound depending on the word that they are used in.

Not Knowing When To Pause

As a general rule, you have to connect your words together when you speak in English in order to sound fluent and natural. This does not mean that youl should never pause mid-sentence, however.

Many non-native speakers will speak in long sentences without even breathing because they are too conscious of making an awkward pause from out of nowhere.

However, you should know that pauses are a natural part of any spoken language and English is no exception.

So when should you pause? If you are good at written English, then here’s an easy rule for you to follow: Whenever you should use a comma, period or some other punctuation mark, you can safely pause there.

There are several OTHER issues that might affect your progress in your American Accent studies, so join us again in this blog next time in the next part of this series of articles.

Author Bio: Sheri Summers is a long-time English and accent trainer.  She works with individuals around the world through private coaching programs and her online American Accent Course, to help them feel comfortable living, working and speaking in American English.  She can be reached at sheri@accentonspeaking.com.