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Rating: 
Summary: A Speech Pathologist's Tool
Review: I have found great success using The American Accent Guide in my speech pathology practice. This excellent sequential program of verbal exercises is complete as well as fun. The American Accent Guide,as a resource provides my clients with wonderful practice activities which target all of the nuances of American English. I highly recommend this program to non-native individuals who desire improvement in their communicative effectiveness.Toby L. Langstaff, M.A. CCC.
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Summary: The Real American Accent!!!!
Review: I am from Brazil. I come to the USA twice a year in order to practice my English and visit my dear friends as well. They live in Pennysylvania. I really like the eastern USA accent. Anyway, everytime I come here I buy a book which is on American Accent.
I was really fortunate this year because I got The American Accent Guide 2nd Edition which is just awesome.
I'm enjoying soooo much studying it and using the CDs,which the sound quality is superb and totally understandable.
The more I study it , the more I like it. I have improved my pronunciation and intelligibility of my English using this new 2nd Edition by Beverly A. Lujan.
The American Accent Guide 2nd Edition is a great tool for anyone who wants to learn the REAL AMERICAN ACCENT. It is very well written and hard to put down once you start studying
it.I can highly recommend this SUPERB 2nd Edition to anyone who wants to improve their american accent. Jorge Alves Nunes
Brazil
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Summary: The most comprehensive book I have found
Review: I checked out all the accent training materials I could find from the library and I believe this one to be the best. (I looked at the following: American Accent Guide, American Accent Training, Pronounce It Perfectly in English, American English Pronunciation Program, How to Speak English without an Accent, and EasyAccent. I also looked at Well Said, and do not recommend it for self-teaching.)
So you know who this review is coming from: I'm a native speaker of American English and lifelong linguistics enthusiast. I investigated these accent reduction systems at the request of a non-native speaker looking to improve his accent, and I became fascinated with the variety of offerings out there (many of which were woefully incomplete). Although I have not personally used these systems, I hope my analysis as a native speaker will be helpful to some! Perhaps I'll have more to add later when I see it put to use.
Of the materials I looked at, I prefer Lujan's (the item being reviewed) for the following reasons:
1. It is at the top in comprehensiveness. The only other program I found in the self-teaching category that was comparable was Ann Cook's American Accent Training. (Note: I did not look at Donna Hope's American English Pronunciation, which was mentioned by another reviewer--that may be good as well.) All the others described individual sounds (some less helpfully than others), but in the areas of linking, rhythm, and intonation, their coverage ranged from partial to non-existent, and was sometimes misleading.
2. It has the most accurate and complete method of explaining and transcribing rhythm and intonation, in my opinion. As mentioned, none of the other methods but Cook's covered this area extensively, and I believe it to be extremely important. Both Lujan and Cook indicate the great importance of rhythm and intonation in accent, but have devised different methods of explanation and transcription. I felt Lujan's was more complete, and when I read the examples aloud (and listened to the audio), the transcription matched perfectly in all cases. I did not feel quite as comfortable with Cook's in that regard.
3. It does a good job of offering examples of regional speech which the reader might encounter, while letting the reader know they are non-standard. This is arguably valuable, but what I think is particularly important is *not encouraging* the reader to use unnecessary speech patterns. This is one thing I did not like about Cook's presentation and part of the reason I prefer Lujan's. Cook has a section on merging words together and gives examples and exercises along the lines of "pronounce 'did you' as 'didju'." This is definitely not necessary, and as a native speaker, I do not make these links and find them annoying to hear. Anyone reading Cook's book would do well to ignore this section.
My overall recommendation:
Get Lujan's American Accent Guide. If you are really into it and want something else--which wouldn't be necessary, by the way--or you need a pep talk, get Cook's as well. (But don't start saying "didju"!) I probably wouldn't try to reconcile the chapters on intonation from both of those--I'd just stick with Lujan's. If you are not super motivated to go through a comprehensive program, or want some "light listening" on your off days, you might also get Pronounce It Perfectly in English from the library. It is lacking, but not that bad for basic information (though again, I believe the intonation part is a little inconsistent).
Bottom line:
If you're only going to get one book on improving your accent, get the American Accent Guide. It's good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: most comprehensive and accurate I've found
Review: See my review on the 1st edition for a comparative analysis of this book with others. (I believe this edition is basically a superset of the last one, but they don't seem to be linked on amazon, so I'm doing it myself.)
Rating:
Summary: most comprehensive and accurate I've found
Review: See my review on the 1st edition for a comparative analysis of this book with others. (I believe this edition is basically a superset of the last one, but they don't seem to be linked on amazon, so I'm doing it myself.)
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Summary: Excellent work
Review: The author is very passionate, enthusiastic and experienced. Language is practice and this is a good foundation that can help you (8CD's of pure sounds size does matter) it helps your ears to identify sounds and hopefully to look for them while in general life situations, watching TV or listening to radio so you can sincerely succeed in your efforts to reduce accent. Now that you have the right ear you can record and listen to yourself.
Surely it would help in both TOEFL and TSE (Test of Spoken English).
I will certainly wait for her new publications, hopefully there will be part II and may be III with the author's simplicity and technology sophistication.
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Summary: If you want a solid fundamental
Review: This book & CDs are use to build a solid fundamental for American English speaking, and I put the CDs at the car and listen while I drive.
Most content in the book are include in the CD, it's all simple English so if you study the book once you know what words they're speaking for. Why I said this because many single words in the CDs share same / similiar pronunciation, if you don't read the book first you can't distinguish it.
The CD voices are articulate / high quality. I found it especially good for Asian because most learn British English under their education systems.
Don't expect you will improve your English level by finish this book. As the title suggest, it'll only improve your speaking style. You still need to watch TV, listen to radio, do more reading, and talk as much as you can.
Thank you for all previous reviewers' opinions because I don't have time and money to try every products in the market.
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Summary: The knowledge I get is matchless.
Review: This gem provides me the complete guidance to the correct sounds that Americans speak and the practical and easy steps to follow. I improve not only my speaking, but my listening also. Gradually, I notice myself having more fun and more confidence when facing Americans. Hardly hear their embarrassing "I-beg-your-pardon?" responses anymore. Supun Tiptipakorn
Ph.D. student (Electrical Engineering)
The University of Texas, Arlington
Rating:
Summary: The knowledge I get is matchless.
Review: This gem provides me the complete guidance to the correct sounds that Americans speak and the practical and easy steps to follow. I improve not only my speaking, but my listening also. Gradually, I notice myself having more fun and more confidence when facing Americans. Hardly hear their embarrassing "I-beg-your-pardon?" responses anymore. Supun Tiptipakorn
Ph.D. student (Electrical Engineering)
The University of Texas, Arlington
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