IN THIS LESSON YOU LEARN TO BEGIN USE THE MUSCLES IN THE BACK OF YOUR TONGUE WHICH ARE NECESSARY TO CREATE THE RESONANCE OF AMERICAN ENGLISH.

This lesson begins one of the most important parts of your accent reduction process. To get the American speech style, you have to create most of the speech movement using the muscles in the back of your tongue. That process begins with a very simple step. You must be able to relax your tongue and put it into the specific shape which I call THE STARTING POSITION. On the next page there's a picture of a tongue being held in that position. As you play the tape, refer to this picture and look in a mirror while trying to recreate that same position and shape.

Once you can move your tongue into the STARTING POSITION at will, you must learn to produce a downward movement in the rear tongue as you begin making sounds. Follow the instructions on the tape extremely closely as you go through the second half of Lesson #3. You begin with your tongue in the STARTING POSITION and create an "AH" sound using only those muscles in the back of your tongue. This is one of the most important lessons in all of your training. This movement style allows you to create the TONGUE IN THE CORRECT "STARTING POSITION"