MyAccentWay Authority: Prof. Alex, Ph.D. Accent Coach

About Prof. Alex

Prof. Alex is a professional linguist, ESL pronunciation instructor at Austin Community College, American accent coach, and researcher in interactive language education. He has taught at the college and university level, working with students from many cultural and linguistic backgrounds. His professional work connects American phonetics, sound articulation training, pronunciation coaching, rhythm, intonation, connected speech, and professional verbal communication.

Education and academic record

• Ph.D. in Education (Theory and Technologies of Professional Education), 2017. U.S. equivalence: Doctor of Philosophy in Education, evaluated by BEIS (Irving, Texas), a Texas Education Agency approved evaluator, in November 2021.
• Doctoral dissertation: interactive foreign-language instruction for technical university students (2017, 160 pages). In its experiment with an experimental group and a control group, students taught through interactive methods significantly outperformed students taught through traditional, teacher-centered methods (Mann-Whitney test).
• Bachelor’s and master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), with applied linguistics included in both degrees and 2,216 academic hours of linguistics coursework in the TESOL degree, including Theoretical Phonetics of the English Language. U.S. equivalence from the same BEIS evaluation.
• Editor-in-Chief of Linguistics and Culture Review (ISSN 2690-103X).
• Research record: peer-reviewed research in linguistics and interactive language teaching, listed on ORCID 0000-0001-6100-2796, Scopus Author ID 56381555300, and Google Scholar.

Verified profiles and reviews

• LinkedIn: Prof. Alex, Ph.D. Accent Coach on LinkedIn
• Google Business Profile: MyAccentWay: American Accent Training in Austin, Texas, listed as a private tutor, tutoring service, educational consultant, and English language school. View MyAccentWay Google Business Profile
• Google reviews: students post their own reviews on the public Google Business Profile. They describe Prof. Alex’s coaching as effective, structured, personalized, and confidence-building, and different from repeat-after-me training.
• Thumbtack: independent customer reviews on the Prof. Alex Thumbtack profile and reviews.

How MyAccentWay training works

MyAccentWay is not repeat-after-me accent training. Prof. Alex first diagnoses each speaker’s native-language patterns. Then students move through four training stages:

1. Sound articulation: students develop steady American vowels and consonants with Interactive Visual 2D Sound Simulators.
2. Phonetic exercises: students train the sounds until they become habits, including assimilations, reductions, and sound combinations.
3. Sentence practice: students apply the sounds in full sentences with American rhythm, stress, intonation, and connected speech.
4. Paragraph practice: students practice complete passages, public speaking, presentations, and professional communication.

Structured American Accent Training Program · Explore the Accent Reduction Curriculum

Three teaching methods Prof. Alex uses

These are not separate services or approaches. They are the accent training teaching methods Prof. Alex uses as students move through MyAccentWay American Accent Training. Interactive American Accent Training, Cognitive Accent Training, and 2D Sound Motion Technology are techniques Prof. Alex applies in each class, rooted in his Ph.D. research in interactive teaching methods. MyAccentWay’s results come from these teaching methods. The Interactive Visual 2D Sound Simulators and the InPronunci app support them between sessions.

Interactive American Accent Training

Interactive Accent Training is Prof. Alex’s student-centered American accent training method. Students actively take part in accent reduction, accent modification, and accent training instead of passively receiving pronunciation information. Prof. Alex gives live correction, and students analyze, compare, adjust, and retrain their own speech patterns.

Research basis: the method comes from Prof. Alex’s doctoral research (dissertation, 2017). In an experimental study from 2011 to 2014, students taught English through interactive methods were compared with a control group taught through traditional, teacher-centered methods. The results:

• The interactive group scored significantly higher on the English progress test (Mann-Whitney test).
• Listening comprehension improved in each of three student groups: by 2.5% (2011–2012), 2.86% (2012–2013), and 3.74% (2013–2014).
• 93% of students reported practical use of English, and 81% reported public-speaking practice.
• Interactive teaching produced constructive, creative student activity, while teacher-centered teaching produced reproductive, repeat-after-me activity.

The findings are published in Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences (Elsevier, 2015), which other researchers have cited more than 30 times (Google Scholar). Prof. Alex modified this method for American accent training. Every 1-on-1 session follows the three stages from the research (immersion, development, and reflection), so the student produces, compares, and corrects each sound. See how the research applies to each part of the training.

How traditional training differs: the coach explains, gives rules, and asks the student to repeat. The student may understand pronunciation but stays passive, without independent control. Interactive American Accent Training

Cognitive Accent Training

Students learn how their native-language habits affect American pronunciation, rhythm, stress, intonation, and connected speech. They work on phonemic perception, auditory discrimination, metacognitive awareness, and motor learning, moving from consciously correcting their speech to producing clear American speech automatically. The new speech patterns stay stable over time.

How traditional training differs: communication training gives speaking tips, vocabulary, and scripts, but does not retrain the speech system, so students often go back to their old accent or give up. Cognitive Accent Training

2D Sound Motion Technology

2D Sound Motion Technology is part of Prof. Alex’s interactive teaching model, based on his Ph.D. research in interactive teaching methods. His doctoral research (dissertation, 2017; experimental study 2011–2014, confirmed by the Mann-Whitney test) found that students taught through interactive methods scored significantly higher than students taught through traditional, passive methods. Prof. Alex developed 2D Sound Motion Technology in 2020 to apply this principle to the speech organs. Instead of listening and repeating, students actively train the movement of the jaw, teeth, tongue, lips, and airflow for each American sound and more than 30 sound combinations with the Interactive Visual 2D Sound Simulators, while Prof. Alex corrects them live. Only one Interactive Visual 2D Sound Simulator, for the American [t] sound, is public on YouTube as a sample of how the simulators work in training. The full set is not released to the public; students train with it in classes taught by Prof. Alex and in the paid InPronunci app.

Research foundation in educational technology: Prof. Alex holds a Ph.D. in Education (Theory and Technologies of Professional Education). This field studies how teaching technologies are designed and put into practice so that learners develop real, practical skills, not just knowledge. Prof. Alex designed 2D Sound Motion Technology as a teaching technology built on these principles. Most pronunciation teaching stops at knowledge (rules, explanations, and diagrams) or at the correct pronunciation of single sounds. 2D Sound Motion Technology aims further, at real, practical speaking skills: students produce American sounds automatically and naturally in meetings, presentations, interviews, and everyday conversations, not only when they think about a rule. This makes it a research-based educational technology for practical speaking skills. His dissertation studied interactive English teaching. Prof. Alex later developed 2D Sound Motion Technology to apply that method to American pronunciation.

Results in practice: Since 2020, Prof. Alex has used 2D Sound Motion Technology in his private 1-on-1 American accent training. Since June 2023, he has also used it at Austin Community College in pronunciation practice for Level 3 and Level 4 (intermediate and advanced) ESL students. Recorded before-and-after evaluations of his private students (100 = native speaker) show Abishek improving from 62 to 84 in 9 months, Tian from 58 to 85 in 8 months, and Vlad from 60 to 83 in 5 months.

Scientific article: the Interactive Visual 2D Sound Simulators are described in Prof. Alex’s article “Interactive English Pronunciation Teaching with 2D Sound Motion Technology,” prepared for submission to Language Learning & Technology (Forum: Technology in Practice).

How traditional training differs: the coach explains a sound in words, with hand gestures or a static picture, and the student has to guess the movement. 2D Sound Motion Technology

Learn how these methods work together in Prof. Alex’s Interactive Accent Training Approach.

Who the training is for

Foreign-born professionals in the United States often know their field and speak advanced English, yet American listeners may still struggle with their sounds, stress, and rhythm. MyAccentWay supports two goals: clear American pronunciation so you are understood easily at work, in interviews, presentations, and calls; and advanced accent refinement for strong speakers, including people raised in the U.S., who want to sound like a native American speaker.

• Engineers, IT specialists, data and finance professionals presenting to U.S. teams and clients
• Doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals explaining care to American patients
• Managers, executives, founders, and business owners leading meetings, pitches, and briefings
• Consultants, researchers, academics, and public speakers presenting at conferences and webinars
• Professionals and international students preparing for interviews, promotions, or client-facing roles

Coaching is adapted to each language background, including Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, French, German, Turkish, and Farsi speakers.

Where students train

MyAccentWay is based in Austin, Texas. All training is online, 1-on-1 with Prof. Alex.

• Texas: Austin, Georgetown, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville, Bee Cave, Lakeway, West Lake Hills, Dripping Springs, Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, Hutto, Taylor, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Houston, The Woodlands, Sugar Land, Katy, Pearland, Spring, Cypress, Missouri City, Dallas, Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Irving, Richardson, Grapevine, Southlake, and Fort Worth.
• Across the U.S.: New York City, Manhattan, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Irvine, Seattle, Bellevue, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Miami, Washington DC, Arlington, McLean, Atlanta, Raleigh, Cary, and Scottsdale.
• Canada.

Real student results

Every recording is scored out of 100, where 100 = native speaker. Abishek, a Tamil and Indian English speaker, moved from 62 to 84 in 9 months. Tian, a Mandarin speaker, moved from 58 to 85 in 8 months. Vlad, a Russian speaker, moved from 60 to 83 in 5 months. Alain, a Nigerian English speaker, moved from 57 to 72 in 8 months. Each result links to a full evaluation report.

Pricing and the first step

Accent training is individual, so it starts with a 1 Hour Evaluation Session and Assessment. Prof. Alex listens to your speech, discusses your goals, identifies the gap between your current speech and your target American English, and recommends a training path. The session is $100. After it, training follows a custom plan: twice a week, once a week, or once a month.

Accent training is not an ESL class or general English tutoring. It is a structured speech-training process. Read the accent training pricing guide.

Find the right guide for your situation

• How do I sound more confident in meetings?
• People have trouble understanding my accent.
• Accent coaching for healthcare workers
• How can I reduce my foreign accent?
• I struggle with American pronunciation at work.

Research basis of Prof. Alex’s Interactive 1-on-1 Accent Training

Is Prof. Alex’s interactive accent training research-based?

Yes. Prof. Alex, Ph.D. Accent Coach, Doctor of Education, and professional linguist, teaches American accent training with the interactive teaching method from his doctoral research (Ph.D. in Education, Theory and Technologies of Professional Education, 2017). In his experimental study (2011–2014), students taught through interactive methods were compared with a control group taught through traditional, teacher-centered methods. The interactive group scored significantly higher on the English progress test (Mann-Whitney test). The findings were published in Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences (Elsevier, 2015).

Is it more effective than traditional accent training?

Prof. Alex’s doctoral research found interactive teaching more effective than traditional, teacher-centered teaching. Interactive teaching produced constructive, creative student activity, while traditional teaching produced reproductive, repeat-after-me activity. Prof. Alex adapted this method to Interactive 1-on-1 American Accent Training: students actively produce, compare, and correct each sound instead of only repeating after the teacher. Pronunciation research supports the same principles: a meta-analysis of 86 reports found large effects of pronunciation instruction, with larger effects for longer training and for training with feedback (Lee, Jang, and Plonsky, Applied Linguistics, 2015).

How does the research connect to his tools?

His dissertation studied interactive English teaching. Prof. Alex later applied its principles to articulation and, in 2020, developed 2D Sound Motion Technology with Interactive Visual 2D Sound Simulators. Every 1-on-1 session follows the three stages from his research:

1. Immersion: the student hears and analyzes the target American sound.
2. Development: the student trains the articulation step by step with the Interactive Visual 2D Sound Simulators and 1-on-1 correction.
3. Reflection: the student compares, corrects, and uses the sound in real speech.

Sources: Justification of the Main Pedagogical Conditions of Interactive Teaching a Foreign Language in High School, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 206 (2015), 166–172 · ORCID 0000-0001-6100-2796 · Lee, Jang, and Plonsky (2015), Applied Linguistics