It all started with Arthur Compton – a man with a passion for accents.
Arthur J. Compton, Ph.D. is the Founder, Director and President of the Institute of Language & Phonology in San Francisco. He received his BA degree in Business Administration/Advertising, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Linguistics, Psychology, and Speech Pathology, from The Ohio State University. He was an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa where he established academic programs in Psycholinguistics and Child Language. Upon relocating to San Francisco, Dr. Compton taught at the University of California, Berkeley and California State University, Hayward. In 1972, he was awarded a four-year NIH (National Institute of Health) research grant to 1) trace the linguistic acquisition and evolution of children’s speech and language from infancy to 4 years, and 2) examine the clinical applications of linguistic analysis for children with speech and language disorders.
Dr. Compton is a recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 1970 Editor’s Award for his pioneering linguistic research with children. His applications of speech science and linguistic analyses to problems of communication have been published extensively in more than 100 professional publications, journals, and textbooks. His teaching and testing materials are widely recognized and used nationally and internationally.
1976
Dr. Compton founded Carousel House Press, a scientific and educational publishing company, to provide high-quality teaching, testing, and reference materials to professionals within the fields of normal and disordered communications. Carousel House publishes and distributes most of the research and products that have been developed at the Institute of Language & Phonology. These materials are now used by thousands of speech-language pathologists, special education teachers, ESL teachers, actors, and other trainers and educators dealing with spoken communication.
He began his explorations into the area of Foreign Accent Improvement, and developed the Compton P-ESL Program (Pronouncing English as a Second Language). Dr. Compton has worked with thousands of clients from more than 125 different language backgrounds.
1985
Dr. Compton began to train and certify other Speech Pathologists to use the Compton P-ESL Program through live training events in different locations.
Early 1990s
Dr. Compton also began to design and implement customized accent improvement training programs to meet the specialized needs of specific corporations and institutions, both domestically and internationally. He was also conducting P-ESL certification training at universities across the U.S.
In the days before the ubiquity of the internet, registration for ILP training events was managed by mail and phone. Dr. Compton sought the ownership of a toll-free phone number that reflected the core concept behind the phonology component of the P-ESL program: language. Hence, 1-800-LANGUAG(E)
Interestingly, this number was briefly used by a company associated with the author and talk radio host Barry Farber, who authored the book How To Learn Any Language, first published in 1991. The number was printed in the back of Farber’s book. How the number was transferred to the ILP remains a mystery, but for many years ILP would receive inquiries by phone from individuals seeking to learn various languages.
2000s
In 2004, Dr. Compton expanded and divided the activities and services of the Institute into a Training Division (instructor training) and a Research and Division.
This division of activities afforded him the time and freedom to greatly expand his research studies. More details on Dr. Compton’s research can be found at ajcomptonpesl.com.
Interest in the field of accent modification had grown significantly among SLPs. P-ESL certification workshops were being offered once a month in a different North American city.
2008
The Institute of Language and Phonology: Training Division has been led by North Carolina-based Training Director Joe Comeau, MS. Ed, CCC-SLP. Joe has designed and conducted certification trainings in multiple formats for Dr. Compton’s method, including live multi-day workshops and web-based courses. Mr. Comeau has been responsible for all of the
Compton P-ESL Program teacher training programs since 2008. Between 2008 and 2018, Joe conducted nearly 100 2-day workshops throughout the United States and Canada. 2011
2011
The first The first web-based course on the P-ESL method was offered in 2011. At about the same time, the first web-based version of the Online Assessment was released.
2024
The P-ESL certification training continues to be offered online, in a completely updated version in video format.