The world's best selling accent and pronunciation book. This book starts at the most basic level -- the syllable -- and builds up to the complex intonation that is used in everyday English. This book will guide you to fluency in spoken American English. All aspects of the American accent are covered in detail -- intonation, liaisons and pronunciation.

The new and expanded 3rd edition (September 2012) has four all-new chapters that cover the psychology of accent acquisition, American voice quality, a pronunciation overview, and an ESL instructor's guide. The new CDs feature professional male and female voices that have been carefully selected to represent that perfect American accent. With 30 years of extensive research, the unique AAT methodology has been refined to teach the American sound quickly and easily, paying special attention to:

• Voice quality, with emphasis on accurate presentation of the authentic American sound

• Pronunciation, with attention to all vowels, consonants, blends, and diphthongs

• Intonation, which focuses on syllable stress rules and word stress in a sentence

• Linking, or liaisons between phonetically transcribed sounds so students can "see" the sound

American Accent Training also offers detailed nationality guides for ten languages and accent variations: Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Korean, Arabic, and the US Southern accent. Added features include access to comprehensive websites, and referral to a qualified telephone analyst for individual help. American Accent Training has been Americanizing the speaking habits of students and business people since 1991. Going where no accent book has gone before, AAT continues to set the standard for anyone learning or teaching the American accent.

Ann Cook is the author of the best-selling American Accent Training text, published by Barron's in 1991, 2000 and 2012. (Also published in China, Japan, Korea and India.) Her speciality is tailoring and expanding materials for specific situations, as in her three books for parents of elementary-age students, How Well Does Your Child Read? How Well Does Your Child Write? How Well Does Your Child Do Math?

Cook studied Spanish Literature at the California State University at Los Angeles, spent a year at the Institut d'Études Françaises in Aix-en-Provence, a month studying Spanish with the Peace Corps language program in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, and five years in Japan at the Japanese Culture and Language Institute in Tokyo.

In addition to her regular teacher training, Cook has trained a dozen Americans to teach in Korea, and hundreds of Korean high school students who came to the US for her program. Her company, American Accent Training, Inc., has provided training for numerous heads of corporations, post-graduate students, engineers and IT personnel. American Accent Training is used around the world at public and private schools, universities and corporate training programs.

Cook also developed an online learning program for the American accent and culture for blended learning in the overseas call center market, including assessments, industry-specific modules, sales modules, and general cultural information, delivered via a Moodle platform.

American Accent Training, Inc., founded in 1986 and incorporated in 1997, is a virtual language training company with instructors across the United States. All AAT instructors have a masters degree or PhD and are intensively trained in-house, specifically for second accent acquisition.