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Communication Coaching & American Accent Training (Potomac)
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- Are you tired of repeating yourself?
- Does your accent hold you back from career advancement? from social opportunities?
- Do you need coaching on your elevator pitch?
- Do you struggle with workplace interactions or business correspondence?
ACCENT
If you want to be EASIER TO UNDERSTAND, wish to FIT IN BETTER, or want to speak with MORE IMPACT, I can help you. You'll bring your pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation closer to General American English. You'll learn that sounding American is really about creating an American identity -- while keeping your original identity intact.
SPEAKING AND WRITING WITH STYLE
How can you make a conversation flow? Learn to choose the best words while avoiding common errors and cliches. Be fresh and original while projecting professionalism and confidence.
WORKPLACE AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
Do your interactions lead to unexpected, puzzling responses? What messages might you be sending through body language or choice of words? As an experienced cultural mediator, I can help you address issues of intercultural awareness. Together we'll identify and replace culturally unhelpful behavior patterns with better ones.
Verbal tics—you know those mannerisms like 'um', ‘basically’, and 'you know' that many of us have, but scarcely even notice? Well, other people notice them! I'll help you spot and eliminate such tics.
How about making and receiving phone calls? Do you communicate with confidence over the telephone? We can check that out too.
PRESENTATIONS AND ELEVATOR PITCH
Don't be that dull presenter whom you yourself dread going to hear! Learn how to connect with your audience. Explore every aspect of your presentation including content, organization, wording choices, expression, and body language. The aim is to arrive at an integrated presentation where content, motives, and delivery all combine with impact.
ACADEMIC ENGLISH
First practice creating and editing interesting sentences. Then write true essays with thesis or forecast sentences, taking care to keep the reader well oriented. Crack the code of academic writing with power words and power grammar to create tight, engaging arguments. John Maguire's READABLE WRITING GUIDE serves as the point of departure for all of this. This framework is also known as Anglo-American rhetorical style (getting to the point).
Finally, more and more people are asking for
CONVERSATION PRACTICE and TARGETED GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION
... either as separate classes or alongside work in the other skill areas.
ABOUT ME
I'm bilingual French/English with English as my first language. I have advanced proficiency in American Sign Language and basic proficiency in Russian. My teaching certifications are in ESL, French, and instructional technology. I'm a seasoned teacher of more than a few years. My background in linguistics, speech communication, and the Lessac system of speech and voice dynamics gives me a powerful set of tools to address listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The Lessac approach, based on feeling sensation and vibration rather than hearing sound, is especially suited to improving clarity, expressiveness, and presence.
This is about learning to produce the sounds of a new language and remembering what you learned. You want these skills to last--to become automatic--and my framework helps make that happen.
My clients are local and international academics and professionals. They come from many fields: business, finance, government, journalism, law enforcement, medicine, music, philanthropy, and technology. They're from Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia--all over the world.
Teaching is systematic and rigorous, with attention paid to detail. I teach practical, ready-to-use skills. I'm patient and teach with a theatrical flair--so lessons are fun! I'm the only accent coach I know of who combines Lessac with corrective phonetics. My students invariably report increased confidence and more fluid communication. Many of them have received job offers or gotten promotions as a result of skills which they attribute to working with me.
So please be assured that you'll be held to HIGH STANDARDS.
When you reply, please include details about your language concerns. Describe your goals and I'll follow up as quickly as possible. I look forward to hearing from you!