n “My Fair Lady”, Professor Henry Higgins taught Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, to speak “proper English.” Everett Leiter doesn’t meet many flower girls, but he is in the business of changing the way people speak.

Operating his business, Confident Speech, out of his home on 16th Street and 7th Avenue, Leiter has clients who aren’t interested in the rain in Spain, but are definitely interested in clearer communication.

Leiter has been working as a speech pathologist for over 20 years
and he puts that experience to good use when working with his
clients. “We, as speech pathologists, have a strong background in phonetics,” he said.  “We’re experts at getting people to change the way they speak.”

Leiter starts off by taking clients through a series of exercises to
assess the errors they make in pronunciation and rhythm. He has them pronounce a series of words, read a paragraph and speak off the
cuff, often about their work, so he’ll hear the words they use
every day. The most important thing, Leiter says, is that students
actually hear the difference between what they are saying and the
correct pronunciation, so he takes them through problem sounds
one-by-one.

Students who work with Leiter individually typically sign up for 14
sessions, which each last an hour.  Though sometimes students will
complain that their mouths are getting tired, Leiter thinks they
enjoy the work.

“This is the kind of training that doesn’t involve a lot of brain
power,” he said.  “It’s kind of fun.  It’s like tennis lessons – we
have some laughs, too.” Leiter tells students that the goal is not to erase an accent completely but to see a dramatic improvement.  Usually, students will finish with up to 75 percent fewer errors in pronunciation and intonation.  Leiter records a pre-test and a post-test so the students can hear their progress. Hear two before/after accent makeovers...