Our company, Clear Speech Specialists, Inc., was founded in 2005 and incorporated in the state of Kansas in 2006.

• We do not teach traditional English as a second language (ESL/ESOL) classes.
• Our teaching begins where ESL teaching ends!

Our heartfelt mission is to compassionately serve accented, proficient speakers of English with effective, proven training approaches that improve speech clarity.

Through our customized training programs, we seek to:

• facilitate clear, efficient, harmonious communication in the workplace
• assist professionals, and the corporations they serve, in achieving their desired workplace objectives
• remove speaking related barriers on the job, allowing individuals to accomplish their highest professional objectives, including career advancement, if they so choose

Speakers with regional dialects also benefit from our training to polish their speaking skills and improve their professional image. “Studies indicate that 50% fewer jobs and 35% less pay are offered to interviewees who speak non-standard English.”[Mary I. Berger, Author: Speak Standard, Too, 2004].

ABOUT OUR FOUNDER

Anne Maki, president and CEO of Clear Speech Specialists, is a Corporate Speech Trainer. She is a nationally certified Speech-Language Pathologist with the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and received her Master’s degree from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She is state licensed in Kansas, and has over 20 years experience in her field. In 1999, she was awarded “Therapist of the Year” for the state of Colorado, presented by the Colorado Health Care Association.

Anne began specializing in American English Pronunciation training over seven years ago in Colorado, after a nurse from the Philippines requested help with her pronunciation of the letter “H”. Her version sounded more like “edge”.

“We worked together and were able to fix her pronunciation in 5 minutes! Then, I gently coaxed her to repeat after me. When she realized she could say 'h' correctly, her face turned pink, her eyes filled with tears and she whispered, 'Really ?! I said it?!' She was amazed that she'd said it correctly. I couldn't believe how this had been such a worry and emotional burden to her for years. She rarely spoke at work and dreaded ever having to spell out a word. She was so happy and relieved when she said it right! My heart went out to her, and at that moment, I knew I wanted to pursue specialized training in accent modification to help others avoid the same frustration and embarrassment I saw in that wonderful nurse.”

"I am grateful for the extensive training I have received from many innovative, respected leaders and educators in the specialized area of accent training across the United States. These educators have implemented their programs successfully for over 20 years, resulting in tremendously improved communication skills for countless professionals living and working around the world. "

Anne uniquely combines strategies and techniques she has learned from such key accent training pioneers as: Sikorski, Compton, Chwat, and others, and is a Preferred Trainer with LDS and Associates. She uses professional, published workbooks, audio CD’s, CD-ROM programs, audio and video recording, and other materials as needed to give her students value-added return on their investment and unlimited practice opportunities beyond the class. Individual sessions also include formal before class and after class speech evaluations to objectively measure intonation and pronunciation improvements.

Clear Speech Specialists’ custom designed pronunciation courses are conducted in small groups (6 participants) or individual one-on-one sessions for corporations and individual professionals. Training is also available in limited focus workshops for small to medium sized groups.

ABOUT OUR CLASSES...