How to Fix My English Accent

So many people ask me “How can I fix my English accent?” 

No matter what your primary language is, if you’re learning English as a foreign language, it’s likely that you are not satisfied with your accent in English and you want to fix it.

Most people have a goal of eventually speaking English like a native speaker, with a perfect British English, or American English accent and no sign of their own accent when they speak

Is that you?

Are you tired of your English sounding ‘foreign’ every time you speak? My Danish students often joke that they sound like they are speaking English with a potato in their mouth!

Why “Fixing” Your English Accent Isn’t the Solution

There are some real advantages to speaking English with a foreign accent – as long as people can understand you.

In this Lightning Lesson, I talk about a couple of them, and I also share what you can focus on that will get your moving in the right direction with all your English skills, including pronunciation, which is much more important than your accent.

Watch the video below. Here’s a summary:

1:39 – Having a foreign accent when your English isn’t perfect is actually an advantage

2:30 – When you make small mistakes in English, like dropping the third person ‘s’ or using the wrong preposition, if you have a foreign accent, people assume it’s just an English mistake. If your accent sounds like you’re a native speaker, the only reason you would make this mistake is that you’re uneducated or not very smart. That’s not what you want!

Speaking English with a foreign accent gives you a little more flexibility in making mistakes, without being judged on your intelligence.

6:05 – Your accent gives the listener cues about your background and culture. If you speak with the accent of a culture you didn’t grow up in, you need to also be aware of all the cultural references typical to the people who are from there, as well as the behavior.

If you ‘fix your English accent’ so that you sound like you’re from a specific place, people speaking to you will assume you know the cultural references and behavior from that place.

8:45 – When you speak English with a noticeably non-native English accent, people give you the benefit of the doubt when you do something unexpected.

9:35 – Having a perfect English accent without the proper background creates a facade that doesn’t have the support of the language behind it.

10:02 – What to do? Use the Lightning Practice techniques to improve your grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency AND your accent over time. By using this approach, you improve your language as your accent becomes more neutral.

11:11 – What to do if you have trouble with pronunciation and people can’t understand you sometimes. I have another Lightning Lesson “Improving Your English Pronunciation” with some tips on what you can do to get started with improving your pronunciation and make it easier for people to understand you.

13:00 – When you’re ready to get started with your practice, take a look at these 5 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing Practice Material. This pdf is available for free to people on my mailing list. Join the list and download the pdf at lightningenglish.com/material.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, comments or ideas that came up during this Lightning Lesson.

I’m also really happy to get ideas from you about what you want me to talk about in upcoming Lightning Lessons, so drop me a line!