What is the Compton P-ESL Method?  

In a nutshell

Compton P-ESL is….an effective, respected, proven method to help non-native speakers with their pronunciation of American language. 

Compton:  Is the name of the man who invented the method, Dr. Arthur J. Compton
P-ESL:  Stands for Pronouncing English as a Second Language 

Benefits of the Compton P-ESL Method

• Identifies the systematic speech errors (or accented sounds) that a client makes so that maximum improvement can be made quickly
• Based on 20 years of linguistics research and teaching
• The program continues where traditional ESL programs leave off
• Improves both Regional and Foreign Accents  
• Includes client workbooks and training materials for a structured but individualized program

Four Key Elements of Compton P-ESL Method

By using the Compton P-ESL method, speech pathologists, linguists, and ESL specialists help adult clients achieve their goal of clearer and more effective communication through 4 key steps:

1) An initial analysis with the client
2) A customized learning program that addresses each client's needs
3) Client’s choice of individual or small group sessions
4) The Compton P-ESL workbook and training materials

The speech professional works with the client in teaching the appropriate speech modification techniques.

The client…

• Reinforces his/her lessons by practicing outside of the class using the Compton P-ESL training materials.
• Learns to discriminate between different speech sounds, with special emphasis placed on pronunciation, complete word production and voice projection.
• Puts these language fundamentals into practice during conversational speech and oral presentations.
• Receives the Compton P-ESL practice workbook and a choice of the cassettes, audio CD or interactive CD-ROM to reinforce their accent modification training.

The Solid Research behind Compton P-ESL

Through his work as a linguist, Dr. Arthur J. Compton analyzed the English pronunciation of hundreds of individuals from more than 100 different language backgrounds. His research revealed that the "accented sounds" of English constitute a system of interrelated patterns, which are determined largely by the speaker's native language

Dr. Compton also discovered that although many different speech errors (or accented sounds) occurred in an individual's speech; these errors represented a small number of systematic patterns (error types), which are the actual source of the pronunciation difficulty. As a result of this discovery, Dr. Compton began to apply his "Principle of Linguistic Generalization" to foreign accents and regional dialects. By focusing on the basic error types, maximum improvement and habit formation were achieved in a short period of time.

Designed to help individuals, who do not speak American English as their native language, master the pronunciation of English, Compton P-ESL trained speech pathologists, linguists, and ESL specialists can teach individuals from any foreign language background the principles of this method.