Jane Shiau was comfortable. She worked as a computer systems developer for a federal government agency for years, and was happy with the dynamics in her office.

Since Shiau is from China, communication with the co-workers on her 10-person development team was a breeze – eight of them were Chinese, too. There was no need to worry about her communication skills, pronunciation and accent.

But then the ground began to shift, and Shiau, who has a master's degree in computer science, was promoted to team leader of another group. The computer systems developer found herself leading a more culturally diverse tech team, and was required to chair meetings and give presentations in front of large groups. Shiau was no longer comfortable.

Around that time, Shiau came across an ad in a Chinese newspaper for a free seminar on pronunciation improvement. Eager to remedy the situation, she attended the session and signed up for a course with Sharon Heffley, director of the Accent Modification Center in Great Falls, Va.

"My pronunciation wasn't too bad, but I wanted to speak more confidently," says Shiau, who has been living in the United States for 20 years and speaks English only at work – Her family and friends all speak Chinese.

After taking the 10 two-hour-session course, "Shiau still has an accent and a lot of pronunciation errors, especially if she's not focused," says Heffley, "But her confidence level improved a lot. That's one of the biggest improvements.

"You find with a lot of these people that as long as they've been in a department, their coworkers adapt to their accents, and it's really not a problem for them," says Heffley. "But once they have to do a lot of speaking to new people, the listeners don't have time to adjust to the accent, and the communication starts to break down."

And this can affect career advancement, says Heffley. At first, “The job really does not require a lot of verbal interaction, but then they rise through the corporate ranks, and the requirements change," says the accent specialist. "They have to do less tech talk and more general conversation."

All in the delivery

Heffley taught Shiau in a one-on-one setting, focusing on how long to hold a vowel, the difference between letters like Rs and Ls, remembering to say the final consonant in a word, listening to melody differences, and differentiating syllable stresses.

"I couldn't really pronounce the different Ss in 'Susan,'" says Shiau. "I found out that the class could really improve some words I cannot pronounce."

Shiau is not alone. The number of IT professionals for whom English is a second language is increasing. And with many of them who – ironically, speak near-perfect textbook English – making their accent understandable is a daily challenge.

The Ugly American

"The biggest problem with accent is the fact that some Americans are not used to hearing [one]," says Wendy Hyman-Fite, director of Washington University's (WU) program for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESL) in St. Louis, Mo. "A lot of Americans have a low tolerance [for accents]. And a heavy accent is going to get in the way of interfacing with people. [Non-native English speakers] may do well with a computer, but not people."

Not only that, but according to Hyman-Fite, "Americans might perceive [a person with an accent] to be poorly educated. Even if they don't say it, it sort of happens indirectly."

"We hear their pronunciation and assume, 'Oh my gosh! They probably can't read English and can't understand what I'm saying,'" says Marilyn Rymniak, executive director of international products for Kaplan Educational Centers in New York City. "When in reality, they probably have a high command English." Kaplan provides English language lessons at 150 centers across the United States, and 32 centers abroad.

"[IT workers who speak English as a second language] tend to be very adept, bordering on brilliant, people. What stops them in their career is their speech. What's holding them back from the top jobs is their speech. The perception of native English speakers puts them at a much lower education level than they are. They're coming across like they're really not that intelligent. That's what drives these people into these courses," says Rymniak.

Accent on Speech's Corcoran agrees. "Their English skills are usually excellent," she says. "It's just that Anglo ears attend to the accent, and they miss parts of the message."

Cultural differences, too

But there are problems beyond accent that plague the immigrant English speaker. "[Asian students] are good students and they're great at memorizing. But the speaking is the weakest point," says WU's Hyman-Fite. "And there's a cultural component, too. If they're coming from a country like China, Japan or Korea, no class participation occurs there. Only the most respected person or head of the group does the talking. So it's hard for them to participate in a class or business meeting because they're waiting for the elder to do all the talking."

Michael Palm, marketing director for Berlitz International, Inc., a worldwide language training firm, says instruction on cultural differences – like verbal vs. nonverbal communication, dress code and dining etiquette disparities – are included in a fairly new Berlitz accent modification class designed specifically for people working in the IT industry.

"We surveyed our customers in the IT industry, and those people requested a course to help them communicate better in English," says Palm, based at Berlitz headquarters in Princeton, N.J. "They have the techno-speak down and have the tech vocabulary in place, but we found that a lot of the IT professionals don't have conversational skills, via memos, presentations and meetings."

Cut to the money chase

The Berlitz program offers two options. The student can attend a one-on-one course that goes for five days, six hours a day, priced at about $1,900, or an IT company can pay for corporate sponsorship and send a number of workers for the course together – and save by paying group rates. Palm points out that in most situations, the company pays the tuition.

Indeed, the federal government's Shiau approached her boss with the bill, and the agency picked up the tab, says Shiau. "It's in their best interest. If the training is job related, it is not only a benefit to yourself, but also to the company."

Shiau's tuition at the Accent Modification Center was a little bit less than the Berlitz fee, in part because the course wasn't tailored to IT workers. Rates for the Center's 10-week course range from $850 to $1,500, depending on class size.

"Most people fit very well into a group program," says the Center's Heffley. "The only time they don't is when they have a very heavy accent and I spend too much time working with that individual [and not enough on others]."

But the lessons learned were worth the dollars spent, says Shiau, who referred her husband and neighbor to Heffley's program.

Copyright ©2000 by Quantum Communications, Inc., 1493 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 100, McLean, VA 22101. Reprinted from the January/February 2000 issue of ITrecruitermag.com.

Learn more about the Accent Modification Center.