I currently work in Ann Cook’s highly innovative and creative American Accent Training (AAT) program. AAT emphasizes the applications of the rhythms, intonations and sound-group liaisons in American speech–– very much akin to and rooted in American jazz. My work in accent training and the rhythms of American speech complements my over twenty years in radio, performance art, love of jazz, and in particular, a flair for dramatic narrative developed in over 35 years of higher education
In addition to accent training, I teach English (ESL) and am a private English tutor.
In 2016 I studied Spanish at the Bolivian Spanish School in Sucre, Bolivia and at Altiiplano Spanish in Tarija, Bolivia, in the heart of the high-altitude wine country.
Doc (left) in front of one of Bolivia’s most well-known wineries, Tarija, Bolivia, October, 2016
In 2015, I studied Spanish in Nicaragua, obtained an ESL/TESOL certificate at the International TEFL Academy in Leon, Nicaragua, and upon returning to the United States was certified as an accent trainer at the Compton School of Phonology before teaching in American Accent Training.
Doc overlooking Lake Masaya in Nicaragua, March, 2015
Early in my early studies in the mid 1970’s I spent my junior year abroad in Germany and France studying language and international relations. During this time, I also traveled to over twenty countries throughout the European continent, Israel, Turkey, Russia and the Ukraine.
