What Does Clear Speech Mean to You?
Let’s begin with a simple message: Speaking skills and accents are two very different things. In today’s globalized world, we celebrate the countless accented voices that comprise our incredible multilingual and multicultural landscape at Baruch. For many people, an accent is an important marker of personal history and overall identity. On a practical level, research in adult second-language acquisition has demonstrated that it can be extremely difficult to completely mask the accent from one’s first language, but also that people can have very strong first-language accents and still be completely understood in an additional language. It is for these reasons that you will never hear us talk about the need to “reduce” or “fix” your accent.
Instead, TfCS focuses on improving our participants’ “intelligibility,” which we define as a speaker’s ability to communicate their message clearly and as intended. This definition of intelligibility is broad and encompasses a wide range of communicative skills. For some TfCS participants, the first step toward improved intelligibility may include practicing the most important English pronunciation features, such as word stress, intonation, rhythm, and tricky sounds. For others, intelligibility involves using more effective public speaking strategies, or exploring the countless, nuanced ways to appropriately request, apologize, and give critical feedback in difficult academic and professional situations. From everyday idioms and conversation skills to clearly presenting complex details in charts and graphs—and everything in between—we have the expertise and experience to provide customized instruction, and to help you achieve your academic, professional, and interpersonal communication goals. See below for a curated list of research on the topic of accents, intelligibility, and more.
How TfCS Supports Your Oral Communication Goals
TfCS offers a wide variety of free, in-person and online services throughout the academic year. Below is a brief overview of each type of service:
The Oral Communication Video Assessment (OCVA) is a brief, private diagnostic test of your ability to speak English effectively and intelligibly in a real-world setting. It’s personalized, it’s private, and there’s nothing else like it!
The Focused Skills Series provides an opportunity to learn about the fundamentals of clear speech in interactive 1.5-hour sessions with up to seven of your peers. In each session, you’ll participate in communicative practice, receive individual feedback from the Speech Consultant, and leave with useful suggestions for customized independent practice.
In One-to-One Sessions, students can work individually with Speech Consultants in private, personalized tutorial sessions throughout the semester. All TfCS Speech Consultants have professional training and advanced degrees in Applied Linguistics, TESOL, or a related field, and many of them teach in the top higher-education institutions in New York City.
Overview Workshops are longer sessions that offer students the opportunity to receive instruction in critical areas of clear speech, as well as interact with other multilingual learners of English in a comfortable and welcoming environment. Each workshop highlights a different area of communication and offers exercises to improve speech clarity.
The TfCS Professional Series offers instruction in oral communication skills that are critical for the workplace. With specialized support in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics, you will learn how to express yourself clearly and appropriately in a variety of contexts
Conversation Hour is a terrific way for students to improve their ability to converse in English. This 60-minute, casual discussion opportunity explores American society and popular culture, and offers students a chance to converse with other multilingual learners of English in a quiet, informal environment. Conversation Hour features groups of up to eight students and is led by a TfCS Speech Consultant.
TfCS Connect creates opportunities for meaningful intercultural communication in various settings across New York City, including meals, museum visits, field trips, workshops, and more.
Tools To-Go offers a variety of practice exercises and online resources for remote access. From individual English sounds to overarching features like intonation and stress, these exercises are an excellent way to preview, practice, and maintain what you learn in our face-to-face services.
TfCS Research
TfCS pedagogy for participant intelligibility at Baruch College is in many ways influenced by research presented in the following publications. Though this is certainly not a comprehensive list (and one that will continue to grow), we invite all who are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of our approach to explore the work below.
We are also very interested in fielding comments or questions from our colleagues and participants. Feel free to contact us at TfCS@baruch.cuny.edu.
Articles Related to Intelligibility, Comprehensibility, and Accent
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (1997). Accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility: Evidence from four L1s. Studies in second language acquisition, 19(01), 1-16.
Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., & Wiebe, G. (1998). Evidence in favor of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction. Language Learning, 48(3), 393-410.
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2009). Putting accent in its place: Rethinking obstacles to communication. Language Teaching, 42(04), 476-490.
Levis, J. (2011). Assessing speech intelligibility: Experts listen to two students. In. J. Levis & K. LeVelle (Eds.). Proceedings of the 2nd Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, Sept. 2010. (pp. 56-69), Ames, IA: Iowa State University.
Munro, M. J., & Derwing, T. M. (1995). Foreign accent, comprehensibility and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 45, 73–97.
Articles Related to Explicit Pronunciation Instruction
Couper, G. (2003). The value of an explicit pronunciation syllabus in ESOL teaching. Prospect, 18(3), 53-70.
Couper, G. (2006). The short and long-term effects of pronunciation instruction. Prospect, 21(1), 46-66.
Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., & Wiebe, G. (1998). Evidence in favor of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction. Language Learning, 48(3), 393-410.
Derwing, T. M., & Rossiter, M. (2003). The effects of pronunciation instruction on the accuracy, fluency, and complexity of L2 accented speech. Applied Language Learning, 13(1), 1-17.
Derwing, T., Thomson, R., & Munro, M. (2006). English pronunciation and fluency development in Mandarin and Slavic speakers. System, 34(2), 183-193.
Hanlon, E. (2005). The role of self-judgment and other-perception in English pronunciation attainment by adult speakers of Spanish (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest.
OCVA Research and Background
The Oral Communication Video Assessment is a useful tool for a variety of purposes and audiences. Students, faculty, and staff may use the results to make decisions for areas of further work. Students will be empowered to make learning decisions about areas that need improvement based on quantified data results. Faculty may use this information to make informed pedagogical decisions tailored to their teaching contexts, and the Tools for Clear Speech staff will use this information to make informed decisions on how and where to allocate resources in order to better serve students’ needs.
Research and review of literature considered in the development of the OCVA can be found below. Please direct all questions or comments regarding this background to the Tools for Clear Speech Program Director, DJ Dolack at Dennis.Dolack@baruch.cuny.edu.
TfCS Speaking Construct Definition, Review of Literature (PDF)