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An Interview with an SLP Who Specializes in Accent Modification - Part 2 {Ask An Expert}

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We’re back again with Robert (Bob) McKinney, an SLP who works primarily with bilingual clients and specializes in accent management. Bob has lived in six countries, learned six different languages, and worked with clients from more than 80 nations. He shares how his background in ESL and years spent traveling led him to the field of speech-language pathology.

He also discusses his book, “Here’s How to Do Accent Modification: A Manual for Speech-Language Pathologists,” and a number of other resources SLPs interested in accent modification can take advantage of.

Discussion & Reflection Questions

1. Tell us about your background and how you discovered the field of speech-language pathology.
2. You wrote a book on the subject of accent modification, entitled “Here’s How to Do Accent Modification: A Manual for Speech-Language Pathologists.” Can you talk about that a bit?
3. How long did it take you to publish your book? And when did you publish it?
4. What is linguistic discrimination? And what is the SLP’s role in effectively ameliorating this with accent-modification clients?
5. What advice do you have for the student or the new speech pathologist who’s going to be working with an accent-modification client? Where do you start?
6. Tell us about CORSPAN and why it’s such a great resource for SLPs.
7. Tell us about the Accent Modification Facebook group you’re part of.
8. What are some other resources SLPs can utilize to learn about accent modification?
9. Do you have any success stories that you can share with us?

Quote Of The Conversation

“SLPs, that’s the best approach. It’s really, don’t focus on the accent. We love the accent. We want to support that. Focus on intelligibility and naturalness, and then, keep an eye on these suprasegmentals because those are huge.”

– Robert (Bob) McKinney, M.A., CCC-SLP

Robert (Bob) McKinney, M.A., CCC-SLP

Lead SLP at the Sweetwater Union High School District

Robert (Bob) McKinney, M.A., CCC-SLP holds M.A.s in Communicative Disorders, International Relations, and Education. He speaks six languages, has lived in six countries, and has worked with clients from over eighty nations. He currently works with predominantly bilingual students as the lead SLP at the Sweetwater Union High School District. At San Diego State University, he teaches undergraduate phonetics and supervises graduate students in the Accent and Communication Training Program. Bob had a 26-year career teaching English as a second language, including seventeen years at UCSD’s English Language Institute. 

In 2019, he published “Here’s How to Do Accent Modification: A Manual for Speech-Language Pathologists.” He has served on the board of directors of the California Speech Language Hearing Association, and he is currently the president of the Corporate Speech Pathology Network (CORSPAN). He and his SLP wife Szilvia are raising their 12-year-old son as a bilingual speaker of English and Hungarian.

Keep the Conversation Going

Guest Speaker Information

Robert (Bob) McKinney, M.A., CCC-SLP
Lead SLP at the Sweetwater Union High School District

Email – rmckinney@sdsu.edu

Book: “Here’s How to Do Accent Modification: A Manual for Speech-Language Pathologists”

CORSPAN: www.corspan.org Facebook Group: SLPs in Accent Modification