Accent Training Basics: What New Instructors Need to Know

If you’re an ESL teacher, a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), or someone who genuinely loves accents and languages, you likely already have many of the core skills needed to offer accent training services. If you’ve ever wondered whether that interest could become a professional, well-paid service, without building a whole new business, this post is for you.

Becoming an accent coach can be both personally and professionally rewarding. You get to help your students communicate more confidently and work toward meaningful personal and professional goals. At the same time, you’re offering a focused, specialized service that many learners are actively seeking out. But like any new professional skill you plan to charge for, it does come with a learning curve.

If you’re new to the idea of accent training, you might not even be sure whether this is something you could offer or whether you’re a good fit for this kind of work. That uncertainty is completely normal. Most instructors don’t start out with a clear picture of what accent training really looks like in practice.

Many people who are curious about accent coaching begin with questions like:

• What would I actually work on with students?
• How would accent training sessions be structured?
• How is this different from the teaching or coaching I already do?

Over my 25+ year career, I’ve trained more than 300 instructors who started in that exact place: curious, unsure, and simply trying to figure out whether accent training made sense for them as a professional service they could confidently offer.

The good news? You don’t need to know everything to get started. And you certainly don’t need to work on every possible sound or fix every aspect of someone’s speech to be effective.

That said, there are a few common mistakes that new accent instructors tend to make (often with the best intentions!) Understanding these early can save you time, reduce overwhelm, and help you feel more confident as you begin offering this work.

So let’s take a look at the three biggest mistakes to avoid—and what to focus on instead if you decide accent training is right for you.

Mistake #1: Trying to Work on Every Sound in English

No one needs to perfect every sound in English to master an American accent or improve overall speech clarity. In fact, trying to cover everything often slows progress and creates unnecessary frustration for both the instructor and the student.

Instead, effective accent training focuses on high-value sounds. These are sounds that:

• occur frequently in English
• have a strong impact on clarity and rhythm
• don’t exist in the student’s native language or accent
• commonly lead to misunderstandings (for example, leave vs. live or beach vs. bitch)

Starting with high-value sounds gives students quicker wins, which builds confidence and motivation. Even in a structured 12-week program, prioritizing a small number of well-chosen sounds, rather than trying to cover every vowel and consonant, can lead to noticeable, lasting improvement.

For instructors, this approach also makes sessions easier to plan and teach. You always know what you’re working on and why it matters.

Mistake #2: Trying to Fix Everything at Once

It’s tempting to want to address all of a student’s concerns in a single session, especially when they’re motivated and eager to improve. But trying to “fix everything” at once often leads to overwhelm and inconsistent results.

Effective accent training focuses on one sound or concept at a time.

Why?

• Muscle memory takes time to develop
• The brain can only process so much change at once
• Focused, incremental progress leads to better long-term retention and carryover to real conversations

Your role as an instructor is to break learning into manageable steps and guide students through clear, achievable goals. As each new skill becomes more automatic, you can layer in the next one.

This structured approach benefits your students, and it also helps you feel more confident and organized as a teacher.

Mistake #3: Overusing Worksheets and Forgetting Real-Life Practice

Worksheets can be helpful for introducing concepts, but relying on them too heavily can make lessons feel disconnected from real-world communication.

Real speech improvement happens in real conversations.

Accent training sessions become far more effective when they include:

• conversational practice with real-time feedback
• immersive listening and speaking exercises that target rhythm and intonation
• structured role-plays and scenarios that reflect a student’s daily life

For example, if a student is preparing for a job interview, practicing common interview questions together, while focusing on key pronunciation and phrasing helps them feel confident and prepared in a way worksheets alone never could.

Your personalized feedback during live conversation is something no app, video lesson, or worksheet can replace. That’s also a big part of what makes this work so valuable to students.

Why Avoiding These Mistakes Matters

When you prioritize clarity, focus, and real-world application, students tend to progress more quickly, enjoy the sessions more, and trust you as their guide. No one wants to feel like they’re back in school, and a skilled accent coach knows how to make learning feel practical, supportive, and engaging.

For instructors, this approach leads to clearer session structure, more confident teaching, and stronger student relationships. It also positions you as a thoughtful, results-driven professional—someone students are happy to continue working with long term.

Take the Next Step

If accent training is something you’re seriously considering, learning the fundamentals early can save you time, reduce overwhelm, and help you start with clarity.

Inside Foundations, I break down exactly how accent training really works in practice—from structuring sessions and choosing high-value targets to understanding what makes this a professional service students are willing to pay for. It’s an ideal starting point if you want to explore this work thoughtfully and build confidence so you can begin working with students when you’re ready.