Our five year old daughter will soon start school in the UK. She was born in US, has only lived in the US, and has so far been educated in the US. As a result, she speaks with an American accent.
My concern is that there are a few sounds that she still needs to work on, and moving to a different country with different speech patterns may complicate things for her. For example, she cannot pronounce the "r", as in "star" or "very." Could elocution lessons in the UK help her pronounce words the American way? That is, can a British speech therapist help her learn to say the American "star" or will she be taught the British version (which sounds a lot like "stah" to our uncivilized American ears)?
In addition, she's only recently mastered the "th" sound (before, she was approximated "th" with a "d" so that "them" was pronounced "dem"). However, I hear a lot of folks around town (and more often in London) pronouncing "th" with an "f" or "v" rather than the American "th". We spent a fair amount of time helping her with her "th" sounds; I would hate to see all that work amount to naught if she's in a class with students who use "v" or "f" instead.
So, will elocution lessons help her?
Along those same lines, does anyone have a recommendation for a speech therapist or elocution coach near Guildford?
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Elocution lessons for our American daughter?
VintageRainBoots · 19/11/2012 03:49
Waves to madwoman
Couple of things OP:
If you had a top floor flat, you would have stairs to get to it. A block of flats is the UK version of an apartment block.
A wind up is pronounced to rhyme with "mind" - not with wind as in weather.
As a Brit living in the US I have listened as my dds picked up a gentle Texas accent - a watered-down version of their peers' accent. It completely disappears when we come back to the UK in the summer, and then they sound like Hermione Grainger for a couple of days when we return.
Mad I think dd3 has lost her English accent - an in-joke here as dd3 is non-verbal - on her communication device she now types "Mom" instead of "mummy"
My kids still laugh at the time I tried to order a Dr Pepper (a type of US fizzy drink) in a drive through - my English " a doctor pepper, please" was being interpreted as all sorts of other items over the intercom until I finally screeched "a dactar peyprrr" ( and left off the "please") - so you may have to adapt your accent to the situation you are in 
wentshopping - You've just remiunded me of the time I was on holiday in France and a friend ordered a Bison burger. The waiter was completely 
for ages as she tried to make herself understood, until she said "Un Beeesson Burrrrgurrrr" in her best franglais piss-taking style - and the waiter finally understood.
We were 
that he didn't think she was taking the piss.
By the way OP I think it is unusual to use the term folks in the UK unless you are referring to Old Folks.
(please correct me if I am wrong, it has been known 
)
Blooo: What makes you think I don't want her to fit in? Of course I do. But I also her to speak a nice variant of English, be it the standard American English or RP.
As far as Dr. Pepper is concerned, I used to live in Texas, and they just love Dr. Pepper there. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one can buy Dr. Pepper at Sainsbury's (though not root beer 
).
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
As far as I could make out, it's pronounced something like Muzzle. But faster
Pronunciation of Llangwyryfon for ten ?"
Gesundheit.
ah, I can tell now you will fit in perfectly
If you go north of the border to Hawick, its pronounced much like expectorating.
I had an American friend who moved to South Africa with her three DC, her youngest DD who was 6 or 7 instantly started talking with a thick Afrikaans accent in order to fit in with her new classmates It was very convincing but completely fake. She kept it up the whole three years they lived in SA even when they went home for the holidays. It sounded a bit ridiculous but there was nothing they could do to stop her. In The end the parents, quite rightly, realised that it was up to their DD how she spoke. it was funny though
I also know sibling DC in Canada one who kept a perfect English accent and the other who sounds like a true Canadian.
Some accents are more contagious than others and some people take on accents more readily than others.
Errr, very sorry, but I have no idea how to pronounce Greensplat. 
I guess it's said like it looks but quicker and less clearly IYSWIM. ie Grynsplut but I just made that up 
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It's fine if the OP is moving to Guildford. The waiting list for SALT is roughly a year, so she'll have plenty of time to pick up a beautiful Surrey accent.
I would associate missing the "tt" sound out with Americans though
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