Modern ‘enry ‘iggins Says Lose Accent to Gain Success : Language: Speech coaches help actors learn foreign inflections, immigrants lose them and business people who want to shed a regional twang.

NEW YORK —  When Slava Schoot came here from Moscow five years ago, he spoke only a few words of English. Today he has command of the language but his heavy Russian accent often makes him hard to understand.

“I want to speak as properly as I can,” said Schoot, 28, an actor. “People have certain perceptions about people from Eastern Europe. Just because I’m Russian doesn’t mean I’m an expert on Boris Yeltsin.”

To learn to speak as an American, Schoot is taking lessons at New York Speech Improvement Services, the nation’s largest program specializing in eliminating accents and acquiring dialects. Ten state-licensed speech pathologists instruct 200 to 250 clients a week, from aspiring working-class people and business executives to Hollywood celebrities like Robert DeNiro, Kathleen Turner and Gregory Hines.

“Some people just want to use it for business purposes,” said Sam Chwat, the company’s director and founder. Some feel stigmatized as members of groups that are discriminated against, such as blacks, Latinos or fast-talking New Yorkers. “Others plainly try to assimilate to the national culture.”

Prof. John Singler from New York University’s Department of Linguistics, a specialist in the interaction of society and linguistics, said: “There may be certain economic advantages to losing one’s accent.”

About 80% of the clients aim to shed a foreign or regional twang by learning standard American English, a language hardly anybody speaks automatically.

“Standard American English is largely a coached accent; very few people pick it up naturally,” said Chwat--a Brooklyn native who has shed his Brooklynese for an impeccable “broadcast” English. “It’s a fictional language that was created somewhere between Madison Avenue and Hollywood.”

Yet, mastering this invented language can be of immense value.

“If they don’t learn the unique American sounds of this language, no matter how perfect the grammar is,” Chwat said, “they might be unintelligible or at best sound foreign, because they apply the sound rules of their original language to the grammar and vocabulary of English.”

“How one talks has a lot to do with one’s identity,” Singler said. “People have positive associations with some accents, negative associations with others.” Accents like British and French have a certain cachet in the United States, he said.

Standard American English is a sound pattern of 44 consonants and vowels. The average person attending the one-on-one sessions has 10 to 12 sounds that differ from standard American, he said. Usually, each new sound requires two sessions, one to learn it and one to drill it in. With a recommended two sessions a week, most people are done in three months.

Prices vary widely with the instructor’s experience, availability and the client’s aptitude. A short-range program to correct what Chwat termed a minor problem like a lisp can cost from $150 to $600.

“In every culture, your verbal expression is considered an index of how smart you are,” Chwat said. “Your speech pattern, your word choice and your grammar are all considered indications of your intelligence and sophistication. It’s a false assumption, but it’s a popular one.”

The remaining 20% of New York Speech Improvement Services’ clients are entertainers. For them, “code switching,” the ability to shift from dialect to dialect, is particularly useful. Most aim for British, French or German accents to accompany their standard American English, but Yiddish, Cajun and Polish dialects are in demand, too.

“We can research virtually any accent,” said Chwat, who taught DeNiro his Appalachian dialect for “Cape Fear.” After his crew videotaped about 120 Appalachian inmates in Southern prisons and DeNiro determined the exact dialect he yearned for, the actor was drilled three hours a day for four months.

Lisa Sliwa, international director of Guardian Angels, approached Sam Chwat three years ago. As a model with acting aspirations, she felt her Midwestern accent was a major flaw. “People look for any excuse not to hire you,” she said.

“Any actor who goes into the business needs to have a strong speech,” said Grace C. Renn, 21. An actress born and raised in Richmond, Va., Renn has problems with her Z’s and what is called a closed-mouth syndrome, a legacy of her Chinese mother who Renn said mumbles a lot. “I just want to be more confident and more direct.”

Between sessions, students practice to make the new sounds their own. For a more natural conversation, it is preferable to communicate with strangers first, Chwat said. “We suggest that people go down to Macy’s and use the accent on the salespeople, or call the telephone operator 10 times a day,” he added.

Renn compared the process to learning a dance step. “You do it consciously until you can do it unconsciously,” she said.