Foreign Accent Reduction | Accent Modification | Speech Instruction | Successfully Speaking | Public Speaking | Accent Reduction | Voice Improvement | Business Communication | Baltimore | Maryland | Washington | Voice and Diction

"I started my "Successfully Speaking" program with Lynda in the summer this year (2006). English is not my first language. Lynda helped me to improve my pronunciation, the stress patterns and linking of words such that my presentation is not as choppy as before, and one of the most beneficial outcomes from this class is Lynda taught me how to listen to my own errors and identify them. I guess one can't improve without knowing what needs to be improved. I really appreciate Lynda's help in improving my speech."

I took my OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) test in order to obtain my Maryland medical License, and my score was the highest possible: Advanced High!! I also took the TOEFL and did great. I completed all my requirements and already have my Maryland Medical License.

Ever since taking the course with you, I feel more comfortable talking to my colleagues and I can communicate my ideas better in public.

Lynda, I could not have done it without all your help and Dr. R’s support. Thank you again!"

I really enjoyed going through the course in the past few months. You were very effective in bringing to my attention my problem areas in pronunciation and intonation. I believe that after practicing with you during the sessions and with your CDs, I have been able to correct most of those problems. I have noticed that my transcriptionists make fewer errors and leave fewer blanks on my dictated reports.

The last sessions on presentations were also very helpful in helping me reorganize my slides to make my points more clearly. I am planning on using your feed-back in the future when I prepare for major speeches. On a personal note, I felt very comfortable working with you and appreciated your friendliness and professionalism. Thank you for everything.

Gabriel Soudry, M.D.
Director
Nuclear Medicine Section
Franklin Square Hospital
Baltimore, MD

Medically Speaking Training Program

“My clients who work in the healthcare field have made significant positive changes in their ability to be understood as a result of practicing with Medically Speaking and Medically Speaking RULES. The exercises are specifically designed for professionals working in the medical community. Issues that have a major impact on patient / care provider communication are addressed, positively affecting patients’ quality of healthcare.“

Shelly Wallace
Associate Director
Xavier University Leadership Center, Intercultural Communication Group

"I'd like to express my excitement about your training materials! I have used RULES, Medically Speaking, and Medically Speaking RULES with several clients and have been very impressed with the results. One of my clients recently completed Medically Speaking successfully and insisted on purchasing Medically Speaking RULES to further enhance her speaking skills. Your programs are the best I've seen for improvement in word stress and intonation patterns with relevant, challenging vocabulary and helpful grammar activities. Thank you for providing these effective materials."

Sandra Wroblewski
Accent Aware
Wheaton, IL

"I purchased Medically Speaking, the Medical Speaking Inventory, and RULES at the Seattle TESOL Conference. I am writing to let you know how fantastic I think your programs are. I had been using a variety of different textbooks, but your program is far superior to all of them. I was formerly the Director of English Programs at a prestigious language school and have since quit to pursue my dreams of opening up an Accent Reduction Centre in Vancouver. Thanks for such a great product."

Jennifer Yun
Director of Learning and Development
L2Accent Reduction Centre
Vancouver

Roberto Echiverri came to our program from Colombia. He was a wonderful intern. In addition to clinical skills, he was involved in research, designed web-sites and raised considerable amounts of money to fund community service projects. Our Spanish speaking patients loved seeing him and his continuity rates soared. He brought his patients in whenever they needed him, took all of their calls and translated for others.
I couldn’t understand him…not in conference, on the phone, or at the bedside. I certainly couldn’t understand him from the podium and, ironically, when he was invited to present in Barcelona, he had to present in English!

As faculty, we needed to evaluate his strengths and weaknesses in order to facilitate his learning, and, we needed to capitalize on his talent. Lacking an intervention, I guess I just convinced myself that things would improve over time. Then I met Lynda Katz Wilner and discovered Medically Speaking. There were tricks up her sleeve that most of us never pay attention to. Working with Roberto, she even had him demonstrate that he could go from a quiet, thick accent spoken through relatively closed lips to a booming John Wayne drawl. She used videos and scripts and practice recordings.

Behind the scenes, she and I would chat about language and about how other residencies could benefit from her program. Given the number of international graduates filling our primary care programs, and our focus on Culture and Communication along with the other ACGME Competencies, it seemed that her curriculum should be disseminated. She shared her ideas, I posed specific problems and we considered nuances to continue the process of adopting her materials to the needs of a residency program director. Medically Speaking RULES, by Lynda Katz Wilner and Marjorie Feinstein-Whittaker, is the direct result of this collaboration.

In chatting with Roberto about his experience, he beams, “I used to have a gap every other line in my dictations, now I never have a gap!” This year Roberto received the 2007 AAFP Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education.

Sallie Rixey MD, MEd
Family Medicine Residency Director
Franklin Square Hospital Center
Baltimore, MD

Medically Speaking Training Materials

"(My student is using Medically Speaking: Accent Modification for the Medical Profession and) he is doing really well improving items like the /v/ sound which is not in Chinese. Also the syllable stress exercises are helping him a lot. The lessons/exercises are so well set up that he can use them on his own. My only job is to guide him to the important exercises, answer questions and make sure that he is copying the voice accurately."

Elizabeth P. Barnes
Adjunct Professor of ESL
Harrisburg Area Community College

"The materials you sent arrived this morning, and I have just finished listening to Disk 1. To say this is just what the doctor ordered is an understatement. This is going to help the doctor I'm tutoring so much. Thanks again. I LOVE the program! You really nailed it!!

(Six months later) Things went quite well with my docs last year. We had a 50% success rate. We worked with your materials, especially at first, when I felt that we really needed to concentrate on medical terminology. I think the program you put together is the only one in town..... I mean, there is nothing else out there that's remotely comparable at all......"

Shannon Haig
Language Instructor
Reading Area Community College

Training for Scientists, Engineers, and High Technology Professions

Communication Skills Training

“I have always wanted to be a top-notch speaker. This course, while not giving ‘instant results’ that we crave, gives me the tools, techniques, and confidence that will allow me to reach my goal of being an excellent speaker. If I don’t reach that goal, it is because I did not use all the tools Lynda gave me. Of all the training I have taken, this, without a doubt, is the most useful. It will benefit me for the rest of my life.”

Thank you for your excellent support to the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in the area of language and communication skills development for our scientists and engineers.

Skilled people are the heart of a research laboratory such as ARL. For our scientists and engineers, one of the most important skills is the ability to communicate their work and its potential benefits to sponsors and users. You have had a superb customer-focused approach – working with us to develop appropriate programs for improving these skills. All of your efforts, in both individual and small group formats, for language skills for those with English as a second language and briefing, presentation and speaking skills were on the mark.

A tribute to the effectiveness of your various programs is the number of participants who have personally sought out ARL managers to thank them for providing your services to assist them.

Joseph J. Rocchio
Deputy Director
Department of the Army
US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command
Army Research Laboratory

Several of the members of the Electrochemistry Branch have taken several courses on Presentation skills and Accent modification. They all unanimously thought it very worthwhile and most would like to continue. F.K. gave a widely acknowledged, excellent talk at the Power Sources Conference after taking the Presentation course and credited the course for his success. He would like to be able to continue improving his skills. As many of the EC branch have English as a second language, they have also expressed interest in continuing their accent modification training.

Thank you for delivering such a terrific presentation on Public Speaking. Definitely one of the best I have seen. We will continue in conversations with you so you can be part of the EMC university program from now on. It will be very beneficial to all accented employees to attend your workshop!

Accent Modification and Presentation Skills

"The Successfully Speaking Class is a well worth English speaking class. I have benefited and learned a lot from the class, e.g. accurate pronunciation, better use of words, gained confidence, and in the area of public speaking. Also, I am now more sensitive to my speech and use of words than before. Occasionally, I am able to pick up the mistake and correct it immediately. In addition, it enabled me to correct and polish my daily conversation and enhanced my public speaking. Last week, I did a five minute presentation at a department meeting. With Lynda's advice and assistance, I was able to present the material well and gained compliments from my team leader and co-workers."

“I work for The Upside Down Organization in the Department of Staff Development as an Instructional Coach and Presenter. I came to the US ten years ago from Spain through an exchange program. My boss referred me to Successfully Speaking to seek help to improve my presentation delivery. At the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect and I was a little bit skeptical about how much Ms. Wilner would be able to help me after all this years.

To my surprise, as I started to work with Ms. Wilner, I started to realize why, all this years, people would ask me to repeat myself, and why at times people perceived me as abrupt and sometimes angry. Learning what was I doing wrong and why helped me to modify it. Just being aware of my speech flaws and how to remediate them, made my stress level go down and my speech improved significantly. Now I can say the forbidden words without fear of being misunderstood: beach and sheet.”

“Working with Successfully Speaking has been one of the best moves I have made in my professional career. I was born in Africa, but now work as a corporate executive in the U.S. Prior to working with Lynda, I had great diction, construction and language structure, but little awareness of and focus on the stress patterns that characterize and distinguish American speech. My goal was not to acquire an American accent, but rather to be clear and succinct in my communication. This is particularly important as I make many public speeches and presentations. Understanding tone, voice inflection, stress patterns - both syllable and word stress - has significantly improved my ability to communicate to professional audiences around the country. Lynda has through our one on one phone sessions and the material in her RULES book, helped me to identify, listen for, recognize, self correct and consistently apply tone and stress patterns that make my speech easy to understand. She also has a great friendly coaching style! I would highly recommend Successfully Speaking."

The Successfully Speaking Training Program was important to help me interact fluently with my guests, employees, and friends. I have achieved excellent communication skills during my current employment. Everything provided in the program was very specific, user friendly, and clear to understand. I look forward to building my career further based on this program.

I took private lessons with Marjorie and they were very helpful in improving my accent and pronunciation. The course workbook written by Marjorie and her colleague, Lynda Katz Wilner, is excellent in terms of contents and explaining the rules with examples. The practice exercises in the workbook are very effective. The course provided me with all I needed to know to improve my accent and it was customized for my individual needs. I am impressed with the instructor's depth of expertise in speech pathology. It was a worthwhile investment for me!!

"I really enjoyed learning how to improve my accent during Foreign Accent Modification Training. Lynda was very effective in bringing to my attention incorrect pronunciation patterns that I used. Specifically, I would like to mention Lynda's outstanding instructional style and her attitude. In my opinion, Lynda's program is well thought and organized. In addition, she focused on my most critical areas and helped me to elevate them."

Database Administrator
UMCP

I will more than 100% always recommend this program to anyone whose first language is not English. It is very important to be able to communicate effectively with the people we associate with especially for those who are in the healthcare settings or in leadership. Please don’t wait. If you do you will only hurt yourself. If you believe in your dream you will make it happen. Thanks.

I began this program reluctantly because I felt I had no problem with my speech. After listening to myself on the recorded conversations with the trainer, I realized that my speech was flat because keywords were not stressed with the correct pitch. This program has enabled me to assume the burden of making myself more clear by speaking slowly, stressing keywords, and using the correct voice pitch when I speak rather than placing the burden on my listeners to figure out what I am saying. While there is room for improvements, I feel that my listeners understand me better now because I am not told to repeat myself as much as I have been previously asked.

Training for Clergy

“Successfully Speaking has been of genuine assistance to our international clergy as they try to modify their native accents to accommodate the listener in the American pew. The application of phone and computer communication to the learning process has been particularly helpful considering the distances involved in a diocese that covers the entire state of West Virginia. I recommend Successfully Speaking and Lynda Katz Wilner to assist in addressing the needs of your international clergy.”

Rev. Monsignor Frederick P. Annie, V.E.
Episcopal Vicar for Clergy
Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

The training was very effective in my daily communication because as a priest I do encounter people daily during the celebration of the Sacraments, in counseling, in business life, etc. Hence, the need and necessity for me to communicate better and to be heard and understood is of vital importance because it would abrogate any misunderstanding arising from people not hearing or understanding me because of my native accent. This training has aided me to speak slowly, enunciate those words that need to be enunciated and avoid unnecessary words that need not be enunciated in a sentence. Also, it has made me conscious of the rhymes, rhythms and different sounds of American English and how they play out in everyday communication, for example, the 'ing' endings of words, compound nouns, the 'r', 'th' sounds etc.

This training program has affected my work and personal life in a positive light: I have received sincere and genuine compliments from parishioners that they can now hear and understand me better. A case in point was when one of the seniors in my parish brought to my attention that she could hear and understand me better now at Mass than she did before, especially during the homily. A shocker though it was; nevertheless, I owe such a compliment and gratitude to this program for aiding me to achieve this milestone.

On a personal level, I am beginning to notice the switch and shift from how I sounded some months ago, prior to undergoing this training, and now. Also, I am becoming more conscious now, when the unconscious tendency is to recluse to my native accent, I find myself struggling not to do that and the effect is that I tend to repeat a word or sentence.

The program content, materials, videotaping, etc. were of immense help to me both during and after the sessions because they were goal specific. Thus, each of the sessions was aimed at working at a particular sound or speech pattern and these sounds or speech patterns were carried out both during and outside the sessions. The videotaping, while enabling me to witness first -hand how I sounded, impelled me to work hard on those areas I need to effect necessary change to sound better and clearer. Definitely, I would not hesitate to provide a reference to anybody who is in dire need of speech modification or accent adjustment.

"People around me, within a few weeks into the course, noticed improved speech. They could understand me more clearly. Over 50% of my job requires me to be speaking publicly to people. It is important that people understand what I say to them. This course has helped me considerably in communicating my message to the audience. I am convinced they understand me better now and that is very important to me.

This is the third accent adjustment program I have done. I was a little skeptical in the beginning of the class about how much more it will help me. From the very first section I had with Lynda, I knew the class was going to be exciting. Even though this class requires a lot of work, I did not feel bored working with her. She was nice, patient and caring as she walked me through the difficult pronunciations and intonation patterns. When I felt a little bit frustrated that I could not pronounce a word correctly or stress a word correctly, she smiled and reassured me that I could. Of the three classes that I have taken, I will definitely rate this as the best. I have learned much more from this class than the other two combined. This class was helpful to me and I will recommend it without any hesitations to anyone who wants to adjust his accent to the American accent."

Media Training and Presentation Skills

I thought the training session was fantastic, and attacked the issues of public presentation from several angles. The trainer, Lynda Katz Wilner, also did a great deal to customize the session to the particulars of our industry.

Lynda had a number of unique approaches which I had not learned about from any previous media trainer. For example we learned techniques for preserving our voice when forced to give presentations in a loud convention floor environment, or when presenting very early in the morning or late at night. This information will come in very handy in our field!

Lynda also had a talent which I found particularly amazing: as she stepped through her own presentation in perfect form, she was able, seemingly effortlessly, to step in and out of character, demonstrating both the correct technique and several possible incorrect techniques. The incorrect techniques were delivered with such authenticity that it was much easier to imagine oneself making that mistake and to visualize the road to avoiding it.

Business Communication Skills

Lynda Katz Wilner helped me raise the effectiveness of my verbal and non-verbal business communication which I am pleased to say is generating positive results. Her program is well thought out and systematic, but also customized to work on the skills that I needed to improve upon the most. After she completed a baseline measurement, we focused on the areas that needed the most improvement. She pointed out new strategies at each session that I would work on during my business day or individually. Each session was an opportunity for me to share my results and begin new skill training to achieve new objectives. I highly recommend Successfully Speaking and Lynda Katz Wilner to business professionals who are motivated to improve their communication skills in their professional and personal life.

Online Webinar-Accent Programs Unique to the Medical Community

LDS Online Training Center Webinar Reviews

Thank you for your excellent webinar on accent modification for healthcare professionals. The course moved at a good pace, allowed time for questions and provided valuable information along with practical applications. It was great to receive ASHA CEU's for a course that is truly relevant to accent modification. I highly recommend this training and look forward to additional courses in the future.

Your programs "Medically Speaking: Accent Modification for the Medical Profession" and "Medically Speaking RULES" are ideal for healthcare professionals. I have used them with physicians and nurses and have seen impressive results!

Sandra Wroblewski
Accent Aware
Wheaton, IL

"I loved your presentation yesterday. It was information I was "hungry" for! It was so helpful. I am working to establish a relationship with the hospitals in my area. This program is so badly needed. I'm inspired that I have the tools to use to effect real change in these dedicated health care givers."

Roberta Stanwood, M.A.,CCC/SLP
Certified Communication Skills Trainer
Accent Training Resources, LLC
Houston, TX

"The seminar was of the highest quality and very informative. I feel it portrayed the field of accent reduction in the medical community very realistically and provided skills to pursue this."

"Good mix of marketing, dealing with personalities, and general approaches to different size groups."

RULES Programs

"Lynda Katz Wilner has co-authored with Marjorie Whittaker, manuals that clarify the rules of pronunciation and usage for individuals whose native language is not American English. One version is specific to the medical community, while the other has more general application. The titles are aptly named: RULES. The American English pronunciation system is woefully difficult to master in terms of sound production and intonation, but these authors have managed to cogently describe some of our nuances. They give numerous and creative examples to help both the trainer working with her clients, and the trainee who is developing her skills."

Testimonials

Training for Medical Professionals