All companies must perform a fine balancing act between workplace needs and  employee skills and rights. The struggle to maintain employee respect and save the bottom line occasionally comes into conflict in accent discrimination cases. Companies have lost millions of dollars in such cases because they were not prepared to understand the underlying issues regarding accent discrimination and abate potentially volatile situations before they became crises.  Training managers and providing coaching for employees is a cost effective way to prevent expensive lawsuits.

     Ethnic Communication Arts provides fair, objective speech and language skills testing.  Based on her extensive experience with employees from many ethnic backgrounds and from all levels of the corporation, Marlene Schoenberg is able to compare language skills of employees within the same professional and ethnic group.  She can provide bilingual evaluations with the assistance of interpreters.  In addition, she can help determine if an accent difference interferes with basic communication on the job or if the issue may be  employer preference.

	The Ethnic Communications program can analyze workplace interactions and aid in selection of key unbiased listeners.
	We can provide interpretation of individual speech patterns, job communication needs, and supervisors’ awareness levels.
	Consultation can provide facilitation to assist both employers and employees to make sure everyone involved understands aspects of important multidimensional issues.
	The accent expert has the power to draw inferences from the facts that the layman can’t see. She can simplify all information so both the employer and the employee can understand the situation better, especially if called in early, before the situation escalates.
	As a trusted professional resource, Marlene Schoenberg provides connections to interpreters, ethnic communities, appropriate books, tapes, materials and pertinent articles.
	Our training provides speech and language modeling to create a positive environment for team work through language give and take.
	Ethnic Communication Arts provides accent modification training for appropriate candidates to help increase their awareness of their speech clarity and move them forward in their skill levels with increased confidence.

About the Accent Expert

     With over 25 years of experience as a speech coach, Marlene Schoenberg, Ed.M. ccc/sp  has been a leading accent expert in the Midwest since 1987. She has been a pioneer in providing corporate speech training to international clients and using speech biofeedback and speech recognition technology in her work.  She holds a unique combination of speech pathology credentials  and English as a second language background.  Ms. Schoenberg consults with Fortune 500 companies and government agencies in the Twin Cities and around the country.  Marlene holds a national (ASHA) certification as a speech and language pathologist  and a master’s degree in Communication Disorders from Boston University.  In addition, she holds a certificate in “Teaching Adult ESL” from Hamline University in  St. Paul, MN. Originally from New York City, Marlene  understands accent issues from the inside out.

     Ms. Schoenberg, president and founder of Ethnic Communication Arts, specializes in helping business and professional people improve their speaking voices and Standard American accents. She has worked with employees from all over the world and at all job levels. Her clients include: politicians, diplomats, engineers, scientists, company presidents and vice presidents, physicians, lawyers, and high tech computer experts.

     She is the author of “Pronunciation for Career Growth” and “Better Speech for Better Hearing. Her work has been featured in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minneapolis Star and Tribune, Minneapolis City Business, Infoworld Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, “The English Teacher’s Assistant”, China Insight News and on local  T.V. news. Over the past 10 years she has provided consultation and workshops on “Understanding Accented Speakers”.

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