Effectiveness of Intense Accent Modification Training With Refugees From Burma

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Applied Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• Accent modification is crucial for effective communication among refugees.
• Multimodality training approaches can enhance language acquisition.
• Visual and gestural aids may support phonological learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive accent modification program.
• To assess improvements in articulation, prosody, and intelligibility.
• To investigate the impact of Visual Phonics and prosodic gestures on speech for refugees.

Main Methods:

• A 6-week pilot study involving four refugees from Burma resettled in the US.
• Pre- and post-training assessments using the Proficiency in Oral English Communication (POEC) and Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (AIDS).
• An intensive training program incorporating See the Sound-Visual Phonics and prosodic gestures through individual and group sessions.

Main Results:

• All participants demonstrated improvements in articulation and prosody for trained and untrained items.
• Three out of four participants showed gains in overall intelligibility and oral English proficiency.
• The multimodality approach yielded positive outcomes in speech measures.

Conclusions:

• A brief, intensive, and multimodal accent modification program can be effective.
• This training approach shows promise for improving speech and intelligibility in refugee populations.
• Further research with larger sample sizes is warranted to confirm these findings.