Back to the Book
I've been absent but busy
Hello!
It has been a while since I’ve sent you anything and today I am letting you know that I’m BACK. As many of you know, I worked for a year and a half writing the book about accent modification that I had always wanted to write, I came to a stop in October, 2022. I made a big move across the country in 2023 so no progress was made on it until the end of the year when I got a fantastic opportunity to have help publishing my book. I have been editing it by clearing out all my notes to myself and the things I had left to make decisions about until later, because now it IS later. Just minutes ago, I sent the first 10 chapters to the publisher and will get help with proofreading and editing. This is super exciting for me!
What I’ve Done So Far
The first 10 chapters are all about the what, who, why, and how:
What is accent modification? What is my approach based on?
Who is it for? Who decides to do it?
Why do people choose to do it?
How do the actual consultation, evaluation, and teaching work?
I think these sections will be of interest to both the people who want to learn about accent modification for themselves and the teachers who want to teach it to others.
Some sections might be more specific to teaching; I included everything I currently do and why because it’s the details I wished I would have learned in graduate school but didn’t. I integrated parts of teaching English as a second language, Speech-Language Pathology, psychology, and habit creation. Maybe this should be a teacher’s edition with the specific assessment materials I use.
Some sections might be more specific to the people who want to learn how to improve their English speaking skills because it goes beyond practice exercises and goes into why it’s so complicated psychologically and emotionally.
What’s left?
This has me wondering about where to go from here. The first 10 chapters are the tip of the iceberg. What’s left is a huge amount of actual information about how spoken English works, the details of individual sounds and sound changes based on real speech. There are tons of examples.
It’s the phonetics book I wish I had in graduate school but didn’t. It’s the teaching material I wish I had but didn’t. This goes beyond short descriptions and practice exercises, it goes deep into the why things sound the way they do. I tried to think of every question about speech that I’ve been asked over the years and what kind of detailed answer I would give. Not everyone needs or wants that detailed of an answer, but if they do, this is where they’ll get it. I often think of the questions Eva asks in the Meetups and what kind of answers she likes and that gives me hope that there might be even more people who would like them too.
I think this part should have audio with it. I would be so much better with audio and not just a book. So should I make it a book at all? An e-book? Or make it a website? How would you most like to have this kind of information? I’d like to hear your suggestions.
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of both parts - the book and the to-be-decided book or other formatted material.
We are happy for this exciting step in your career. We know you have worked long & hard with the many overlapping phases of your career - gathering your education that wasn't prepackaged in a single course of study - learning to start and operate a business - customizing plans to your clients' needs - personally communicating with & educating your clients - writing a book to guide both students & teachers.