Speech Firm Accents Talking Like a Native : Speech Communication Inc. of Newport Beach uses a computer to teach people how to lose foreign or heavy regional accents.

A phrase appears on the red-and-blue computer screen, “the third path.” The computer-recorded voice pronounces the phrase; then the student is invited to do so, too, into a microphone.

The student is practicing the “TH” sound.

Next, the computer pronounces the phrase again. It pauses, then the student’s voice is played back for comparison. It’s easy to hear any differences.

“The computer gives instant feedback,” said Nancy Hiser, co-director of Speech Communication Inc. in Newport Beach. Her company has been teaching people how to lose foreign or heavy regional accents for 10 years.

The accents may prevent business people from speaking in public, can relegate an immigrant to a lower-paying job and can prevent people from winning promotions.

Now, Hiser and co-director Adele Kopecky have developed a computer software program, “Sounds American,” which helps their students practice. It’s a step better than reciting phrases after an audiotape, Berlitz-style, with no ability to review the student’s voice patterns.

“Sounds American” can also keep score of how well a student interprets English words and phrases, and it can be programmed to accept up to 99 words and phrases that may be common to a particular industry.

A newspaper reporter visiting from Cambodia or Sweden, for example, might want to practice the English pronunciation of “journalist,” “on the record” or “How do you feel?”

Hiser and Kopecky began marketing the software last month and have had some interest from schools and businesses in Germany, Taiwan, Korea, France and Sweden.

The software can be used with an IBM personal computer or compatible machine. Together with a digital sound card, microphone and speaker, the program sells for $1,196.

The software program, which Kopecky and Hiser developed with a friend who is an engineer, could represent the second wave of expansion for their company.

The partners began in 1983, a decade after they had met in a graduate program for speech pathology at Cal State Fullerton.

They had remained friends. Starting a business “was an opportunity to express our creativity and independence,” Kopecky said. “Nancy is the creative dynamo. I’m the laid-back pragmatist.”

Before they went into business together, Kopecky worked as a computer analyst, clinician and teacher in public schools and at Orange Coast College.

Hiser had spent her years after graduate school rehabilitating hospital patients and teaching neuropathology at Chapman College.

She noticed that many doctors spoke accented English, and she believed the growing number of immigrants to Orange County would create a demand for such language services.

Today, some companies here employ 30% to 40% non-native English speakers, Hiser said, especially in technical fields. The pair have worked with companies such as Fluor Daniel, Allergan, Filenet, Baxter Healthcare, Alcon Surgical and Xerox Corp. The county and the Air Quality Management District have also hired Hiser and Kopecky.

Generally, they teach groups of five for a $3,600 fee. Classes meet for an hour, twice a week, for 12 weeks.

Speech Communication’s first big expansion came in 1984, just a year after the company had opened for business. Hiser and Kopecky began training and licensing others--until now all women--to use their methods and materials. Detroit, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco and 12 other cities now have services similar to Speech Communications, and representatives of the 17 offices gather annually for a conference.

But people from different backgrounds have begun competing for the business. Drama coaches, voice-over professionals and teachers of English as a second language sometimes coach in English pronunciation.

Speech Communications survives, Hiser said, because she and Kopecky care about what they do. Many of their corporate and government clients have been with them for six or seven years.

“We had to make a decision, at one time, whether to leave the front line, to move into administration,” Hiser said. “We didn’t want to. We decided we should continue doing what we do well and enjoy doing.”

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