Well, you can! In fact, if you feel you want to give this journey a go solo, we would encourage you to do so! You may be able to soak up the sounds and prosodic patterns that feature within your target accent just through mimicry. Some individuals are naturals, and do not require a great deal of assistance. However, the vast majority of us find that after attempting this process ourselves, we aren’t able to truly tell with any confidence whether we have quite achieved the sounds we are aiming for.
One reason for this may be oral posture – where articulators within our vocal tracts feel most comfortable to us personally. Different accents will benefit from different oral postures in order to produce the sounds that are most commonly heard within that particular accent. For example, a ‘so-called general American’ accent will benefit from a more retracted tongue root than, say, Received Pronunciation, due to the molarised ‘r’ phoneme that is so much a part of the accent.
Other struggles may be to do with difficulty identifying the correct lexical sets for particular words. Lexical sets are used to help us find rules for categorising words with the same sounds. For example, in most accents of English, the words mouth, house and about will all make use of the same vowel sound, but will sound very different, depending on the accent (i.e. RP, Belfast and Glasgow will have consistency within themselves, but when compared to one another, the differences may be very noticeable). If we have a frame of reference for one (or more) accent(s) of English, it becomes easier to identify other words that should be modified in the same way when working on our target accent. It can be more time consuming to grasp this tool for those for whom English is not their first language. But do not confuse time with surmountability – detailed and focused listening over a period of time will absolutely help solidify this process.
So, have a go yourself! If you feel you are getting there and just want that final boost adding the icing to your accent cake, perhaps we can help with our BASIC plan. If you feel you want a more intensive approach with guidance along the way, our GROUPS or FULL ACCESS plans may be exactly what you are looking for.
The Accent Centre 