I took a lot of speech classes at a very young age to correct what they said up here in the Midwest was a "southern accent". I never really new what was so wrong with my speech patterns compared to other children, but everyone else seemed to notice - so I didn't question my teacher's motives. I know that I will be moving back to the South shortly, so the chances of those vocal patterns returning are large anyway.
I did some research, and it turns out that several decades ago, non-native English speakers in corporate settings began contacting speech language pathologists to help with their English communication. Over the years, this practice started becoming more common among those who were from the United States and were native English speakers - but from a different region than the one that they would be working in.
These speech language pathologists were positioned to be the best instructors - but concerns have arisen as to whether or not they were experienced enough to take on the corporate culture. Doing so would have required changes in their communication style and business practices and the way that they deal with their patients. Instead of acting as a teacher for their clients, they would be acting as more of a supervisor. However, they have proven themselves over the years because of their extensive experience in clinical work and human resource training which is typical in corporate America.
It seems as if speech language pathologists are just following what corporate leaders want today in a business setting and making sure that generations entering the corporate world are adhering to these speech guidelines.
Sources
Feinstein-Whittaker, Marjorie, Lynda Katz Wilner, and Lorna Sikorski. "A Growing Niche in Corporate America." The ASHA Leader (blog), March 13, 2012. http://www.asha.org/Publications/leader/2012/120313/A-Growing-Niche-in-Corporate-America.htm (accessed December 16, 2013).
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