After I moved to the US six years ago, I tried a variety of learning paths, including other accent training classes. In my experience, Jane’s methodology and classes are by far the most effective. After completing the basic class, I noticed a tremendous improvement in my American English accent. In continuing classes, I now focus not only on fine-tuning my pronunciation, but also on practicing advanced writing skills through collaborative proofreading projects. Learning natural wording and how to express my thoughts clearly and efficiently has significantly helped me improve my communication at work as well as in my personal life. I really enjoy learning and working with Jane! She always listens to my learning goals and then provides advice that is tailored to my specific needs.
– Alice H., Product Designer
I wish I had taken this course 20 years ago when I started learning English! It is hard to relearn pronunciation but not too late. My goal was to sound more clear, correct and professional for my clients at work. Jane taught me things about English I had never thought about before. I can tell that my accent has improved because I don’t get asked to repeat what I say, especially on the phone. This experience gave me more confidence at work and socially. I thank Jane for her time and effort. I highly recommend her to other immigrants seeking to reduce their accents and improve their English overall. Her course was well worth the money! – Irina K., CPA
I have been living in US for over 10 years and still had some difficulties with pronouncing certain sounds. I’ve been working with Jane over the last couple months and I’ve noticed amazing improvement. She implemented certain techniques that were spot on in helping me speak more coherently. I would highly recommend using her services, she’s an amazing and supportive speech-language pathologist that is determined to help you reach your goals. I am extremely thankful and grateful for all her help. – Mariela C., Therapist
I have taken ESL classes several times in the past and none of them come close to what this training has done for me on a professional level, but most importantly, on a personal level. This is a complete training covering aspects of English that other courses don’t ever touch including intonation, rhythm and production of the speech sounds of American English. I was really surprised by the professionalism of Jane Rupp since the first day when I had my assessment. Once you start the training you will notice the change almost right away. After the first month people started noticing the improvements in my accent and pronunciation. For me this is the best English class I have ever had and will recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their accent or pronunciation without hesitation. – A.S., Network Engineer
Working with Jane not only helped me improve my English pronunciation, but also my confidence to talk and put myself out there. When my boss said she was resigning, I decided to let her know that I wanted to be considered for the job. I talked to her boss and I also talked with the company owner to let him know I was a good candidate for the job. I got the job and I think that the confidence I gained after working with Jane is part of the reason I got it. One of my reasons to start the program was the feeling that I wasn’t considered to be at the same level as the other professionals various jobs I’ve held, and now I have the opportunity to be the manager. I am very happy when I think about the journey and the work I put in to get to this moment, and I’m thankful for Jane’s help. – A.L., Speech-Language Pathologist
Jane Rupp is a true professional, and has helped me beyond what I can convey in this short message. Since I was young, I struggled with my speech. After a certain amount of time I started shutting off from new experiences and truly being myself, because of the fear of mispronouncing my words in front of others. After working with Jane, she helped me fix my speech problem, and has thus allowed me to be myself again. One of the greatest gifts anyone could ever give me. The process wasn’t easy, but she is beyond knowledgeable of her craft and was dedicated to finding and resolving my issues. I recommend her to those in need and stand by her 100%. Your time is too precious to waste, don’t go another day of feeling anxiety or helpless because of your speech, there is help readily available. Thank you so much for everything you have done for me Jane, you changed my life. – Ian J., Athlete
The accent reduction class was something I thought of as a new learning experience, not knowing it would turn out to be fun aside from just helping me with my pronunciation. I took 25 hours of training and started noticing the changes immediately. I speak clearly now after completion of my classes. Jane was always friendly, flexible with schedules and worked to help me with the areas I had the most difficult time with. Thanks to her I now communicate better when I speak on the phone and in person. – Teslim S., Student
I have attended the 30 hour Accent Reduction class with Jane and am extremely satisfied with the results. Jane is a very professional yet fun teacher, and she is always willing to accommodate a pretty tight calendar. Several people have noticed a difference in my speech and mentioned it to me, that’s a pretty neat feeling! I would say that my two main observations are that people can finally understand my first name when I introduce myself (which was pretty annoying before taking the class) and that I catch myself mispronouncing words and can correct myself right away. – P.D., Sales Manager
Voices of the World Speech Therapy helped me to improve my accent and communication skills in just a couple of lessons. I totally recommend them for their professionalism and dedication. – B.B., E-book Developer
Despite over a decade in the US as an adult, I had never lost my strong European accent. Doing some research I realized that while it’s next to impossible to speak like a native if you haven’t learned correct pronunciation as a child, accent reduction is indeed possible. My goal was to be understood better overall and in situations like being on the phone when the lines of communications are not always clear. I signed up for Jane’s program and was blown away by her effective teaching method. She explained every sound – sounds I wasn’t ever made aware of in high school when I learned English. We practiced every sound together, then I alone through homework and digital recording of my progression, and then again together in class. After about 20 sessions I’m now at a point not only to pronounce almost all vowels and consonants correctly, but to be much more of aware of common pitfalls in my speech. Friends and business associates have confirmed the progress. Accent reduction is hard work and it takes time. If you are willing to invest in it, let Jane be your guide. You will improve! – Michael F., Business Consultant
Me and my son were both students at Voices of the World for 5 months in 2016. First I signed up my son, who was 6, then I also decided to take lessons from Jane so that I can help my son practising his sounds. In 5 months, our American English pronunciation has improved immensely. My son’s speech has cleared up almost entirely, and mine is up to the level that I can clearly express myself. Jane is a highly qualified accent reduction therapist and a perfectly organized teacher. She can engage kids and adults alike in the learning process. I really liked her book that she wrote and gives to her students free of charge. It is a very-well written book and comes with audio files. Thank you Jane so much for everything! It is not easy to find a speech therapist in Austin, who is actually qualified in accent reduction. And Jane is one of them. I highly recommend Jane. – Rita
It was such a joy and also fun to study with Jane. Jane was very patient with me and we had a lot of fun!! This made the class so interesting besides the great materials and all the techniques that she had. Jane gave me a new life! I’m so glad that last year, January 2015, I quit my job in Arkansas in desperation to come to Jane for help, and finally decided to move to Austin permanently in order to finish the course because I knew that Jane was the one I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR 4 YEARS. I’m so happy I found her. I can guarantee that ESL students will never find another special program like Jane’s. I had searched for all kinds of classes and materials from everywhere possible but nothing satisfied me until I found Jane last year. Thank you so much, Jane. You made my journey to my profession shorter and easier!! You gave me a strong foundation of English not just in pronunciation, but also in general conversation. All I have learned from you tremendously helped me to speak confidently without self-consciousness about my strong accent like before. You are awesome, Jane! I highly recommend accent reduction to anybody who is desperately seeking help to change their pronunciation and speaking. You won’t be disappointed!! I approve this message : > with more than 100 % satisfaction. – Tuk
I had a great experience improving my English pronunciation with Jane Rupp. She’s experienced, patient, flexible, and friendly. She used several techniques in order to make sure I was pronouncing the sounds correctly. In addition, the exercises promoted learning in context, which made me associate specific words/sounds with specific situations described, and, then, it made it easier to learn new sounds. I’ve improved a lot my American English pronunciation and recommend anyone to take pronunciation classes with Jane. She’s passionate about her work and she conveys such a positive atmosphere to her students that you get quite comfortable in the process of learning. Thank you so much for the opportunity of learning with you, Jane! – Carmen, PhD Candidate
Going to Voices of the World was one of the best decisions I made this year. I am an international student at UT and have been living in the US for several years. Whenever I talked to people I noticed them making a mental effort to understand what I said and that was a sign that I needed to improve my accent. I also thought that I had a mumbling problem. Since I usually try to learn things by myself, I watched YouTube channels that provide tips on having an American accent but the problem is you may think you’re imitating the vowel/consonant you hear in those videos but it’s very likely that you are doing it totally wrong. Anyways, I learned about VOTW by doing an online search and with Jane being an expert in both speech therapy and foreign accent reduction, it seemed to be the perfect match for me. I signed up for the 20 session program. She has written this practice book, which I think is really well structured and has nice examples, that she gives to you when you sign up and each session we went through a couple of vowels (they were the more important problem in my accent) and a couple consonants. Jane is a perfectionist, and very patient too, and will keep pushing you until you hit the sound the way it’s supposed to be hit. She also has this superpower that just by listening to you she would know what part of your tongue touched what part of your mouth and teeth. It’s truly fascinating that how improving some vowels can make you sound much clearer. I also learned that my mumbling problem was actually mostly an accent issue. For example, if you don’t open your mouth wide enough for the vowel ah (like in “son”) you may sound muffled and mumbly. Or for instance, if “r” is not pronounced with as much emphasis in your mother tongue as it is in English, again your voice may not sound very clear to native speakers. When at the end of the last session we recorded my voice and compared it my voice reading the same text in the initial session I was amazed by how much better (and louder!) I sounded as a result of what I learned from Jane. Even though I don’t have a perfect accent right now, but I know exactly what I should be careful about while I speak in order to have one. I feel much more confident about my voice in general and I think that’s priceless. So if you’re ready to commit a certain level of time and effort to improve your accent I think you can find no better option than VOTW! – Amir
Taking accent reduction with Jane Rupp was a fascinating experience: I was not aware of many sounds in American English and did not have any idea how to pronounce them. Now I can recognize them in everyday speech. The training has not only improved my pronunciation but also allowed me to understand new patterns of American accent. I can surely recommend Jane to anybody. – Deyanira
I am living in US for many years and want to speak English in a natural way, without the impact of my native language accent. After the initial evaluation with Jane Rupp, I signed up for the 20 session program. Jane helped identify my common mistakes with the English language pronunciation. I still have a long way to go, but I feel confident about my language now and learned to speak English the natural way. Her program and methodology are very intuitive and her practice materials are extremely helpful. – Lawrence
Jane was a great instructor. She was very open to conversation and flexible in terms of class content and time. I had to change my schedule several times, and Jane was very willing to accommodate my schedule. Working with her was a collaborative effort. Classes were effective yet exciting. Jane asked for immediate feedback every class and changed her way of delivering the instruction accordingly. I fully understand what I had been doing wrong and how to correct my speaking habits after learning with Jane. As a result of the accent training classes, I became so much more confident when pronouncing words and sentences. My accent has become more natural in such a short amount of time thanks to Jane. – Tien
Hear the Difference
Listen to before and after audio files showcasing our students’ progress.