Ms. Jones said an important step in her development of a character is writing out how someone speaks. The written version of a word or phrase may often look nothing like its spoken companion. The word “girls,” when spoken by a native Arabic speaker, might look on the page like “gez.” Write it down to better understand how the word forms in your mouth.

“Phonetically break it down so you can let it go,” she said. “It helps to get out of your own speech patterns and how you understand words to appear and sound on a page — and in your head — so you can get into how it sounds coming out of that person’s mouth.”

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Vocal training can help with accent acquisition, Ms. Jones said.

“If you’re a singer, you’re probably more attuned literally to the variations that you’re going to find in the ways people speak,” she said.