Teach Accents & Pronunciation: How To Get Started

Welcome!  I am so glad that you are reading this.  

Why?  Because teaching accents and pronunciation is a great way for Speech-Pathologists, ESL teachers, and other language professionals to build a business or add an additional stream of revenue. 

The average rate for these specialized sessions ranges from $75.00 to $175.00+ so it is definitely possible to earn a great income and help others succeed in the process!

You get to set your own schedule, there is almost no paperwork, and you get to work with motivated students who admire and respect you as their personal guide to better speech.

You can start your own business without a huge investment of time or money and then expand your services to include online workshops and courses. 

And honestly, you don't need much more than a computer to get started!

But many people don’t even realize that this is a career option.  And lots of those that do tend to really overcomplicate the whole process of learning to teach and overestimate the skills that you need, which is so sad, because there are so many students out there actively searching for instructors to help them feel confident about their speech.  Students who are just waiting for us to help them!

If you've been thinking about teaching accents or dialects but don't know if you're qualified to do it, I'm here to tell you that you're more qualified than you think.

SLP’s, ESL teachers, actors, and other language professionals are especially qualified for this work. If you have taken even one phonetics class or pronunciation lesson, you are already ahead of the game. If you have ever worked with an articulation client, you are more than ready.

 When I started teaching 20 years ago, I was a newly graduated Speech Pathologist who realized (too late) that I didn’t like working as a Speech Pathologist.  I was overwhelmed by the paperwork, discouraged by the lack of respect in the workplace, and burned out by the data heavy record keeping that reduced my clients to a number.  I got into this field because I love working with PEOPLE not stats!

I decided to try teaching accents and pronunciation, because it seemed like a really cool job and it was something I could do without having to give up my SLP training completely.  The problem was that I didn’t really know…how.  I had some speech therapy skills and techniques in my toolbox, but I knew absolutely NOTHING about teaching accents, dialects, and pronunciation. 

I just assumed that you had to study for years to actually become an expert or else be born with some kind of accent-imitating super power.

Turns out, I was wrong.  There’s no secret talent or special gift that you must possess in order to be an accent or pronunciation specialist.  And it doesn't really take that long to learn the basics and find few students.  That’s exactly what I did and I became an expert with experience.  And so will you.

Quite honestly, teaching accents is pretty simple. A  lot of it is really common sense.

So please don’t overcomplicate it.  You can totally do this.  Let’s talk about what you’ll need to know to start teaching.

If you’d like to learn even more about what you need to do to start your career as an accent and pronunciation teacher, click here to download my FREE Getting Started Guide.

But before we go any further, I want to get some common misconceptions out of the way. 

1.  You do NOT need any a specific degree, special certification, or any type of licensure to teach.

There is no certification or license that that is required to teach accents and pronunciation.  There is no state or national licensing organization or board.  Anyone can do it.  Some of us just do it a lot better than others ;)

2.  You do NOT need to be a native speaker of English.

Definitely not!

You don’t need to be a native speaker but you do need to speak English at an advanced level.  If you feel confident conversing in English in pretty much any situation, you will be just fine.

You can make this a full-time career.

I’ve been doing this work full-time for over 20 years.  Many of my friends and colleagues have been doing it for that long and even longer!  So no guarantees of course, but yes, it’s definitely possible.

Let's talk about the skills that you’ll need to teach.  These can all be easily learned with just a few hours of training.

First, you’ll need to learn how to do an Accent Assessment

You’ll need to know how to evaluate your students so that you can identify goals and create effective lesson plans and training programs to address those goals.  Selecting the right goals and teaching them in the right order is the key to getting noticeable, permanent results for your students.

You don’t need any complicated testing protocols or expensive assessment materials.  Because the main goal of the initial session should be to build a relationship, an informal conversational evaluation during the first session is the actually the best way to evaluate your potential student. 

Plus, a formal evaluation is not really an accurate depiction of how your student sounds in real conversations.  Reading is much easier than talking conversationally without the prompt of the words written out in front of you, so the more conversational speech that you can hear and evaluate, the better.

One of the things that I always do during an assessment is to ask my student to choose a speech model.  This is someone who is their gender, approximate age, and has a style, image, and way of speaking that the student feels is representative of himself or herself. 

And remember, The General American Accent is not always the best accent for every student.  Not everybody wants one or needs one.  Be sure you understand the student’s speech and pronunciation goals and always respect those goals.

The goal for my students is NEVER to “lose an accent" or “reduce an accent.”  There is nothing wrong with having an accent.  The goal is always for the student to feel confident and be easily understood in any situation.

Next, you’ll need learn how to structure an accent training session

Your sessions should provide training and practice on individual sounds, but you will also want to incorporate practice on other aspects of spoken English including rhythm, intonation, vocabulary, conversational skills, presentation skills, and voice improvement, just to name a few.

Then, you’ll need to gather the right materials

You’ll want to build a library of high-quality, modern materials that are appropriate for accent and pronunciation training to use in your sessions.  Use a variety of types (video lessons, audio practice, worksheets) to teach and practice  rhythm, intonation, and every sound of American English

WARNING:  Don’t use childish activities and materials for adult students.  These are highly intelligent, sophisticated people.  Be sure your materials are just as sophisticated as your student and always age appropriate.  No babyish pictures, elementary school word lists, child articulation materials, or silly stories.  Same goes for boring and outdated materials like ancient speeches and poems. 

If you want to retain students, use materials that are engaging and relevant to real conversations and the most common words and phrases in English. 

Once you know how to structure your sessions and programs, the possibilities for teaching are endless!  Accent and Pronunciation Training can be so much more than private sessions.  

Here are some of the ways that I work with students:

• Private sessions in person (before Covid-19) and now using video chat software: I recommend Zoom
• Online Workshops using webinar software: I recommend Demio
• Group coaching:  Zoom also works for this
• Online courses:  I use and recommend Kajabi, but you could use Udemy as a free option when you are just starting
• Online courses + weekly/monthly workshop or group coaching using Zoom or Demio
• Offering practice materials (audio files, video lessons, practice sheets, etc.) for purchase

So if you can't tell by now, I really love what I do.  If you're ready to learn more about how to teach, how to find your own students, and how to build an accent training business, you can do that by downloading the free Getting Started Guide.

Talk to you soon!