Accent Reduction Techniques: The Fish

Accent reduction techniques. Learn "the Fish" mouth movement to improve your overall spoken American English, especially the /w/ and /sh/ sounds!

Great excercise to improve your American accent. Speak better English and master the American accent.

[MichaelAChang]

Excellent! Learned something new: orbicularis oris muscle and its function.

[aram]

You are so professional. Good job ! thanks.

[dingloc]

Rebeca, Do you have a book? I would buy it right away. 

[rebeccalinquist]

The key is systematic correction, so for the l/n distinction that Chinese speakers of the Szechuan dialect face, it's important to isolate the sound with every combination, initial, medial and final and before and after every vowel where it occurs, so it becomes clear exactly which combinations of sounds are most difficult to control and then try mininmal pairs, like "night light"; the same is true for the /w/ contrasting with the /v/ is necessary and in combination with an /r/ for example.

[surajjsr]

How to breath while doing this exercise. Nose or mouth

[jackaossaid]

Thx very much for ur great job that u r doin :-D i just have a question n plz answer me . How the native speakers of English speak make the perfect sounds without moving their lips that much ? Why i have to focus n move my tongue n my lips in the perfect position but for the natives they dont move their lips in the same way that i do but they make the sound by the book !? So how they do it and is it possible to be like them one day or not ?? N thx rebicaa

[whatsgoingonyall]

Hi, Rebecca!
Greetings from Japan! Even though I've never been to the U.S., I'm highly interested in American accent. The mixture of English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Scottish, German, and Native American in the 1600s would have caused the evolution of the American accent. That is why it is so different than English :) Thanks for the tutorial, I'm currently preparing for my SAT so that I can go to a university or college in the US. Wish me luck!

[oflahertycarm]

I absolutely love your videos and send my students to your site for more practice. Any suggestions for correcting the l/n differentiation? This seems to be a particularly difficult combination for my Chinese students to grasp - 'learn' becomes 'nearn'.
As for the /w/ sound, I found that telling my students to think of /u/ when starting the /w/ sound positions their articulators just in the right position - or as you coined as "the fish"

[oflahertycarm]

Thank you so much for your suggestions. As the position of the articulators for /l/ and /n/ is quite similar, how do you explain the physical position of the tongue in relation to the roof of the mouth to your students? I noticed that the biggest challenge in pronouncing initial /l/ sound is when it is followed by r-controlled vowel. It immediately becomes /n/ - any additional pointers?

[edithmiguel]

When I am saying 'hungry' my mouth change to fish position ..!

[joythomas]

Dear Rebecca, all your videos are very informative and i watch them repeatedly. I dont think i have missed any....Of all your videos, i found this one has a dramatic effect on voice quality and straightening out many odds at 'sounding like American.'

The fish mouth position reveals the upper teeth and i can see most of the American show the upper teeth unlike other natives around the globe. And that contriubutes to the deeper and pleasant voice quality.

I have one specific doubt and i would greatly appreciate if you shed some light

Does one have to be holding the upper lip in 'fish' mode always, or there are exceptions?

Thank you in advance for the answer!

[loveenglishspeakenglishcor]

May I be your friend?I want to teach with you if you want.

[GUACARICA]

There's something "fishy" going on.

[rebeccalinquist]

I don't recommend explanations ... too cognitive and unaffective in creating behavioral change; instead, try systematic correction through modeling.