How Assimilation Helps English Pronunciation

According to a recent US News article, “For the past few years, the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. has continued to rise. In 2012, Chinese student enrollments rose by 23% overall, and by 31% at the undergraduate level in particular, according to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors report.”

This influx of Chinese students to US colleges and universities will mean a lot to these students—but they’ll have to get out of their cultural box to make it worthwhile.

Many foreign students will feel secure within their cultural group, but have less of a likelihood of reaching out to their American counterparts. This means Chinese and other foreign students who do not assimilate into the whole culture of the environment they are in are less likely to improve spoken English because they are not surrounding themselves with native American English speakers. Because of this, their understanding of English and ability to read and write English may likely be phenomenal, but their ability to interact socially, give a good presentation in English, or be able to communicate well with colleagues, patients, or clients once they have graduated will be hampered by a non-native English accent.

In 2010, Peggy Blumenthal, vice president at the Institute of International Education, suggested Chinese students invest in what they feel gives them any edge over competition, and work hard on English fluency while also attending school.

But fluency in English goes beyond comprehension. Chinese career professionals must be able to speak in a way that native speakers don’t have to work to understand them—it’s the difference between a slam dunk interview or just having a framed degree on the wall.

Chinese students and career-minded individuals must look to a quality online accent reduction program that can help to reduce a Chinese accent in English and help them sound like a native American English speaker. And the research indicates that everyone from patients to colleagues, and students to coworkers find it easier to communicate, and therefore forge long lasting working relationships with Chinese students and professionals who have been able to reduce foreign accents in spoken English with the help of a trained English speech pathologist and/or American English pronunciation training course online.

At PronunciationPro.com, we work with Chinese students and professionals to reduce thick accents and enhance pronunciation in English to sound like native English speakers. For more information, visit our Prices and Packages page, or try our 7-day FREE trial to get a feel for what we offer Chinese and other foreign students and professionals.

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Janie M Diaz

Public Relations

Prado Media, Inc.

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