For international students at Kent State, mastering English can sometimes feel like an insurmountable wall. The university’s English Language Proficiency Clinic helps to break down this barrier, giving students confidence in their communication.

The clinic, primarily serving incoming international teaching assistants, focuses on accent modification by improving sound production, intonation, sentence rate and other aspects of speech-language pathology. Each one-on-one session, tucked away in Nixson Hall room 108, is led by one of seven graduate student clinicians under the supervision of senior lecturer and coordinator Lynn Berk.

Graduate speech language pathology student Despina Sarris began working at the clinic in August, undergoing training sessions with Berk before being assigned her first client, an aspiring mathematics professor who moved to Kent this summer from Nigeria.

“Having an open mind when working with someone whose first language may not be English, or who learned it a little differently, is important,” Sarris said. “Understand that they are speaking English, they’re just speaking a different dialect of it.”

During a typical session, clinicians start by introducing a common idiom, like “take it with a grain of salt,” to encourage understanding of non-literal phrases. This is followed by individually tailored material focusing on the client’s specific needs, ending with a practice lecture.

In addition to language refinement, the clinic also serves as a form of multicultural exchange.

“Students get to learn about a lot of different cultures while they’re here,” Berk said. “They are pretty open to it; both the students and the clients who come.”

This semester’s students are from many parts of the world, including Nepal, China, India, Japan, Nigeria and Iran.

However, this year’s numbers have dropped due to ongoing issues with international students obtaining educational visas, Berk explained. The clinic has offered to fill open spots with undergraduates and local community members seeking ways to improve their accents, but few people seem to know about it.

“Accent modification is one of those niche areas of speech pathology,” Sarris said. “But we’re here to help people be understood better and work on these ‘big’ sounds that make them seem a little less intelligible.”

The clinic’s impact reaches beyond teaching assistants to their peers and professors who rely on them during lectures.

“Helping them to be clearer communicators is going to carry over into the classroom environment,” Berk said. “We can make a difference for everybody: all of the students on campus.”

The English Language Proficiency Clinic is a part of Kent State’s Speech and Hearing Clinic, which provides diagnostic, rehabilitative and treatment services for both children and adults with various auditory or voice disorders.

Those interested in becoming involved with the clinic can contact Lynn Berk via email at [email protected] or by phone for the English Language Proficiency Clinic at 330-672-2689. The center is also open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Jasmine Williams is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].