1. Slow down your speech by lengthening the vowels in words. Practice setting the pace that is within your comfortable level. Chances are very good that others will follow.

2. Are your speaking loud enough, so others can hear you? If not, pitch your voice up two or three tones higher than your normal speaking voice.

3. Practice makes perfect. Practicing your articulation exercises a few times per day is better than once a day for a long marathon practice session.

4. Change your pitch up and down when speaking. Vary the pitch of your voice from higher to lower as you gradually move through the sentence.

5. Stress one word in every sentence. This allows the person(s) listening to you, to keep up with your sentences, thus giving others a chance to catch up with you.

6. Know your mistakes. If you know which consonants or vowels you have trouble with, then you can slow down your sentence just before you pronounce them.

7. Have fun. Remember to relax and be at ease when speaking to others. If you are tense mentally, than chances are that you will tense up physically when speaking. Take time to breathe between sentences.

8. Speak through the words until their final ending.

9. Know what you want to say before you say it. Keep your sentences precise.

10. Maintain eye contact with your listener. Others will, unconsciously, observe your facial expressions and mouth movements while your speaking.

11. Keep listening and correcting your sound mistakes when your talking. As you keep trying and trying, you will develop the listening and repeating skills needed to improve your accent.

12. Don't worry about appearing foolish or making mistakes in order to communicate with your new accent. If your not doing something different, then chances are your not learning anything new.

13. Pay attention to your intonation (up and down tones) when speaking. Make sure you change and vary your pitch patterns often.

14. Take advantage of ALL opportunities to practice.

15. Pay attention to the speech patterns of others.

16. Don't just think about meaning, but, the basic sounds and stressing patterns.

1. Be organized. Prepare vocabulary and new word notebooks. Have a system for taking notes, working with your textbook and doing your homework.

2. Don’t simply memorize the sounds your learning by hearing them, but focus on where inside your resonators (mouth, nose, cheeks, face, forehead) you feel the vibrations.

3. Create opportunities to practice. Make this practice enjoyable. Go to local restaurants and stores to speak with your new accent. Practice the words softly to yourself before you have conversation with others.

4. Concentrate on communication of feeling more than on grammar and vocabulary.

5. Use mnemonics. Relate the sound to a word in your language and then tie the two words together.
a.) For example: the Italian word for boat is "barca". This sounds like bark in English. (A boat is made of bark=wood) This process helps you to remember the word barca.

The same way of learning American sounds can be used when you learn a new English sound.

b.) For example: the English word blue. This sound is warm and calming.
the water is blue (oo)=calming. This process helps you to remember the feeling of the sound (oo).

6. Use your listening skills. Listen to the sounds you are making. How do new sounds help you express your feelings.

7. Learn from your mistakes. Don’t be afraid to take emotional risks. Make mistakes and remember and learn from them. Remember that it is better to express your feelings when speaking than learn the correct use, and never express yourself emotionally at all.

8. Get help from the context and situation. What are the possible expressive choices? Narrow your feelings down to ones that would be appropriate (naturally fit) the situation. Make expressive risks.

9. Try to use everything you have studied as frequently as possible. Don’t limit yourself to patterns and expressions that you are comfortable with.

10. Learn some phrases and expressions that contain commonly ised everday words. For example: Hi, how are you.(oo) This phrase will be something you will probably say many time a day. Common phrases are good to memorize for readily available daily practice.

11. Try to use different styles and speeds of speech. Speeding up, slowing down, changing the emphasis, adding emotion. All of these activities help you to get a more natural feel for the language.

Travis James - Senior Trainer @ www.relaxandspeak.com

For more than a decade, Travis James has been regarded as a leader in the field of accent reduction and in high demand as a speech consultant, dialect coach and lecturer in New York and Los Angeles. Receiving a B.F.A. from N.Y.U., Tisch School of the Arts, he majored in Acting and Speech, and minored in Organizational Psychology, studying "The Method" under the auspices of Geoffrey Horne (Bridge on the River Kwai; Academy Award Winner) and affiliate Alumni Members, (Yale School of Drama) in 1993. The following year he began his work with the Voice Center of New York, with Doctor William Bly, while a Master's Degree candidate at the (New School for Social Research) in New York City. (Inaugural Class Member, Actors' Studio, MFA). Upon completion of his candidacy, Mr. James was invited to participate in the Edinburgh Festival, U.K., where he worked closely with fellow dialecticians of the prestigious, Central School of Speech, London, England.

From 1994-1998, Mr. James worked on numerous Shakespearean productions for stage and film where he developed his practical understanding of Phonetics, Skinner, Linklater, Berry, Lessac, Compton, other methodologies. While marking his efforts to improve his repertoire of foreign dialects and speech modification, (he speaks in over a dozen dialects), Mr. James, founded, New York Speech Consulting, in 1999, a Communications Consultancy, specializing in Cross-Cultural Communication for foreign diplomats and high profile business executives.

During his time as a United Nations consultant, Mr. James Co-Founded what is today known as the A.R.T.A. Method of Accent Reduction. Based on over through thousands of hours of research and personal training of numerous foreign and political diplomats. Mr. James then broadened his development efforts of the A..R.T.A Method of Phonetic Language training to many of today's top talents in Hollywood. He credits his practicum of honing the A.R.T.A. Method while working under the direction of the today's foremost masters of voice; Maestro, Mark Oswald, (Julliard School) and Maestro, Vladimir Chernov (Metropolitan Opera). "As a consummate student of the mysteries and exploration of the human voice, he has taken something which is seemingly intangible, and made it tangible."

Mr. James is available for master classes, workshops and voiceover bookings as well as guest speaking engagements for educational institutions, radio, television, film and other related media projects worldwide.

For media inquiries, please contact his PR Representation: amanda@relaxandspeak.com or call +1 323-301-8855.