Ela Britchkow Speech Therapist, Creator of Speech Improvement Now programs
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1436298222829{margin-top: 2px !important;margin-right: 2px !important;margin-bottom: 2px !important;margin-left: 2px !important;border-top-width: 2px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;border-left-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 10px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #ddccb3 !important;border-left-color: #383838 !important;border-left-style: solid !important;border-right-color: #383838 !important;border-right-style: solid !important;border-top-color: #383838 !important;border-top-style: solid !important;border-bottom-color: #383838 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Interviewer: Please share your training, experience, and goals related to helping people who have concerns about their accent.“Our accent reduction program uniquely and specifically focuses on your native language”
Ela Britchkow: I hold a graduate degree in Speech and Language Pathology, certification from the Institute of Language and Phonology and the Compton P-ESL Program (specialized training for foreign and regional accent modification). For the past ten years, I have developed software programs for mastering oral language communication skills across the age span. I served as a speech therapist and a communications consultant for over 30 years.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: How did you get interested in helping people speak clearly and better understand Standard American English?
Ela Britchkow: I know how it feels to be unable to speak and understand English. I immigrated to the United States at age ten. My prior accent was related to speaking French, Hebrew and Yiddish. As a child I moved from Israel to Belgium and then to the United States. In Belgium, I needed to learn French as a second language (Hebrew is my first language). Then after living in Belgium for three years, it was necessary to learn English when we moved to the United States.
When we first arrived in the United States, I was only able to communicate with my immediate family. I felt isolated, limited and felt a loss of my prior culture and life. My parents had a very hard time acquiring English. They learned enough English to get their basic needs satisfied, but couldn’t hold a full interactive conversation. They needed my help at times to speak and write. I acquired English more easily due mainly to my age at the time. Research shows that speaking and understanding a new language gets more difficult as we age, particularly after puberty. English is a hard language to acquire and a foreign accent can seriously affect intelligibility. The American culture influences the meanings of many words and phrases. Just understanding good- natured teasing in English can be a challenge.
After I entered graduate school for Speech and Language Pathology my blended foreign accent became a serious concern.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: What happened?
Ela Britchkow: My clinic supervisor insisted that I speak English without a foreign accent. This was distressing since I considered my accent to be part of my identity. I then learned to speak Standard American English (a generalized Midwestern accent perceived as not having notable regional, ethnic, or socioeconomic characteristics). On the positive side, going through this experience, has helped me better understand how people feel when having to modify their accent. I acquired effective techniques that I later used in my career to help others overcome their accent challenges.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: What is the primary goal of your accent modification software?
Ela Britchkow: We want to empower you, with software that utilizes the latest Microsoft technologies, to acquire highly effective oral communication skills. Speech Improvement Now programs teach you to speak clearly so listeners are not distracted or confused by your accent. Clear speech is a prerequisite to academic, personal, and professional success in life. Oral communication proficiencies are consistently ranked in the top ten of desirable skills by employer surveys year after year. Sadly, in the United States people with heavy foreign accents are more likely to be perceived as less intelligent and capable. It is even legal for employers not to hire or promote someone based on their heavy accent. We want to help by providing affordable programs to teach how to effectively speak and be understood using Standard American English. I succeeded in doing this and so can you.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: What are the crucial skills needed to speak and understand English like an American?
Ela Britchkow: It is essential to be able to pronounce sounds correctly that are either pronounced differently or missing from your native language, but it is also extremely important to be able to use standard American intonation patterns, speech rate, accurately pronounce multi-syllabic words (stress on words), use correct grammar, linking words in sentences, develop vocabulary, understand colloquial and idiomatic expressions, and understand words with double meanings.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: How does Speech Improvement Now software compare with the individual sessions you offer in person or through Skype?
Ela Britchkow: The software teaching experience is very similar to my individual sessions. Instead of my being there with you in person the software program provides 15 interactive lessons using thousands of video clips to closely simulate the teaching interaction during a Skype or individual session in my office. You learn, record, practice, compare as often as needed, 24/7 until you master the sounds, and other skills required.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: You provide clients for accent modification, that you work with one-on-one, an assessment to determine a list of skills they need to work on. How does your software program address the evaluation component?
Ela Britchkow: The program relies on an indirect assessment to keep costs down. Each language has a specific pattern, or blueprint, of predictable tasks and challenges people face when learning to speak English clearly and understandably. This is due to most languages being clustered into language branches that share strong linguistic similarities that are historically related. By identifying the native language spoken (e.g. Russian) and the language branch it is part of (e.g. Slavic-a group of Indo-European languages spoken in most of eastern Europe, much of the Balkans, parts of central Europe), we can then make very good predictions about what to include in the accent modification teaching plan for that language. This addresses help for sounds pronounced differently in their native language or missing in English, speech rate, intonation patterns, stress on words, vocabulary development, grammar, idiomatic/colloquial expressions, words with double meanings (homonyms, homophones, homographs), pronouncing multisyllabic words, linking words in sentences, and vowel to vowel linking, syllable reductions that are challenging for Slavic speakers to master. The same model applies to the other languages that respective language branch is a part of. We can also schedule individual evaluations and one-on-one sessions for clients who prefer these services. Clients decide whether to use the software exclusively, or combine the software with individual sessions. All one-on-one sessions are also an option. Speech Improvement Now offers very effective program alternatives that will accommodate most budgets.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Interviewer: How do your software programs, individual or Skype sessions compare with other services and programs that are available?
Ela Britchkow: Most software programs use a generic approach. This means that regardless of your native language, whether it is Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, etc. they use only one instructional method. This teaches the pronunciation of sounds and words that are generally difficult to say in English, whether they are or not challenging in your native language. Speech Improvement Now focuses specifically on the sounds and words that are hard for you to pronounce in your native language. This makes learning pronunciation easier, faster and fun. However, correct sound pronunciation is just the beginning of what our program provides. You need and deserve more. Speech Improvement Now also teaches you to competently master speech rate, intonation patterns, linking and much more, so you will be an intelligible, articulate, proficient speaker. You’ll talk like an American and be satisfied that your time and effort were devoted wisely.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1436298253267{margin-top: 10px !important;margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 10px !important;margin-left: 10px !important;border-top-width: 2px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;border-left-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 10px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #ddccb3 !important;border-left-color: #6d6d6d !important;border-left-style: solid !important;border-right-color: #6d6d6d !important;border-right-style: solid !important;border-top-color: #6d6d6d !important;border-top-style: solid !important;border-bottom-color: #6d6d6d !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]
“You’ll talk like an American and be satisfied that your time and effort were devoted wisely.”
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: Now that you currently offer accent modification software for Russian and other Slavic Languages, do you have other programs planned for release?
Ela Britchkow: Accent modification for Latin/Romance Languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian) is currently in production. After that we plan on producing programs for Indian and Chinese speakers. We welcome input from our customers regarding other requests for future products.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: What was involved in producing Speech Improvement Now?
Ela Britchkow: I can share with you some of the intensive work that went into producing and creating the software for Slavic languages (our first release) which utilizes the latest Microsoft technologies. This has taken us over two and a half years to produce; there are over 2500 videos, filmed in a studio setting with extensive use of appealing settings and backdrops to heighten your motivation and engagement. We needed to include all the tools and skills needed to speak clear, understandable Standard American English. It would have been much quicker and cheaper just to produce one generic program for all foreign languages. We decided instead to provide comprehensive specialized accent modification instruction for the native languages spoken by our clients at a price that regular people can afford. We also wanted our clients to be able to choose from a range of teaching options that could potentially include some or possibly all individual one-on-one instruction.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: Do you provide instruction on how to physically produce these sounds and how to carry over what is learned to your clients’ everyday lives?
Ela Britchkow: Yes, the program teaches you how to use your articulators (tongue, teeth, lips and jaws) to form the sounds correctly. The program shows you how to integrate what you have achieved in real life situations. You will also receive help with audio recordings to correctly pronounce essential vocabulary required by many occupations and professions. Doctors for example have specialized vocabulary they use that is different for law, accounting, technology specialists etc.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Interviewer: Why is it important to have a speech and language pathologist (SLP) providing the accent modification training either in person or through use of software?
Ela Britchkow: An SLP, specializing in accent modification, has the expertise to diagnose relevant clinical speech or medical issues that could interfere with clear speech. It’s important to know whether a particular English sound is missing or pronounced differently in someone’s native language. It is also crucial to rule out clinical speech concerns (articulation, fluency, and lateral lisp or voice disorders) . Effective accent modification training needs to account or rule out such factors. You also can schedule a Skype session for an individual evaluation and an in-depth discussion of your concerns.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black” border_width=”5″][vc_message message_box_color=”vista_blue” icon_type=”pixelicons” icon_pixelicons=”vc_pixel_icon vc_pixel_icon-tick”]
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