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Some thoughts on accent and pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7255 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes  | Message 1 of 43 20 April 2008 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here follows a chart that I believe covers the shades of accent one can have while speaking a foreign language (i.e., a language consciously learned as an adolescent or an adult):
0 – unintelligibly thick accent – prevents communication as they just cannot understand you despite your relatively correct structural expression 1 – problematically thick accent – leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding as they tend to think you are saying something other than what you are saying 2 – offensively thick accent – they understand you, but you grate on their ears 3 – stereotypical accent of distinct origin – whenever you speak, you are immediately identifiable as being an American or whatever else it is that you are 4 – alien accent – they may not know just where you are from, and they may not draw attention to the fact, but whenever you engage new conversation partners, they do register the fact that you sound somehow unnatural or foreign or idiosyncratic or weird or strange or funny, etc. depending on their individual sensibilities 5 – accent moot to communication – they listen to the meaning of your words first and foremost, but if given reason or pause to reflect, they will recall that you sound distinctive or somehow different and thus that you are probably not one of them 6 – polished accent – they can tell you speak their tongue because it is a learned language you have studied rather than grown up with, and that you have worked carefully and hard at doing so (“like a diplomat,” i.e., comparatively much better than most foreigners manage) 7 – accent of (seemingly) long residence – underlying traces of your native tongue remain, but your intonation and overall delivery sound very natural 8 – near native accent – you may be taken for a native at first, but a phonetic irregularity or two eventually betray you 9 – native-other accent – you are taken for a native speaker from another region of the language 10 – native accent – people from a given region believe that you are one of them Obviously, 0, 1, and 2 are undesirable, though many learners struggle long and perhaps in vain to transcend them (your average East Asian speaking a Western language, and vice versa). Although it is the best they can do, 3 also generally carries a stigma in the minds of many speakers. Even 4 might seem less than ideal, though it is the top level managed by many linguistically talented and highly intelligent individuals who have otherwise attained complete fluency and accuracy of expression (e.g., the English of Michel Thomas). 5 is probably ideal (the best compliment is no compliment—if they tell you, “you speak really well,” what they are generally truly saying is, “I notice that you are struggling to speak well, and I know how hard that is—keep it up, you’re doing a good job!”), though 6 is nicer and more respectful, especially if you really care for a language. This 4-5-6 range is indeed both what I generally aspire to and what I would recommend as a realistically attainable goal. 7+ generally require many years of residence in the language, though those with special talent and/or who make special effort may attain this range otherwise. I do not believe that 10 is inherently impossible, but I personally have never met anyone who has attained it. No other aspect of language acquisition is more purely dependent upon raw native ability or talent than is accent. By working hard and intelligently at improving your structural knowledge or vocabulary, you can logically expect to continuously and measurably increase your reading ability and even your range of correct active expression, while comparable time and effort put into accent amelioration is likely to produce far less noticeable results. You should obviously strive to do your best, indeed, to aim high in the hopes of hitting near the target, but you should keep your perspective and recall that most people reach a permanent plateau at 3 or 4, while those who do get to 7 do so by putting in the time. Thus, you should avoid becoming obsessed with sounding like a native as this can cause you both to spend excessive time and energy on this to the determinant of your own holistic development and to be uncharitably judgmental of others; furthermore, it is actually a dangerous goal to obtain, as sounding like a native, or even just sounding as if you have a better overall command of the language than you really do, can easily get you into trouble. At any rate, what can you do to nurture the best accent of which you are capable? In order to develop and improve your accent, there are basically five things you can do: 1) listen to and actively imitate good recorded models of enunciation and intonation 2) study, understand, and apply phonetic descriptions of the production of sounds 3) use a specific accent reduction program or course 4) do spot correction or self-correction, preferably based on face-to-face interaction with native speakers 5) get in tune with the frequency of the living language as it is spoken around you By its nature, the holistic approach of shadowing incorporates 1) above, i.e., a good measure of listening to and imitating good recorded models. Indeed, although there are other manners of listening and then repeating, shadowing does seem to be ideal in that, by speaking simultaneously with the correct model, you get the instant feedback of hearing both your own voice and the accurate model, which, by force of repetition, you can come to approximate. However, shadowing is not really about accent perfection, but rather is a means of intuitively and globally internalizing and assimilating a living chunk of a language. It does indeed build both the confidence and the habit of speaking aloud as it does this, but there is certainly no guarantee that the method-in-itself will take you to a perfect accent—only rather more likely to the best accent of which you are capable, which, again, depends upon your natural talent, your ability a) to hear sounds outside the range in which you have been programmed, and b) to reproduce them. So, if someone speaks with a marked accent and you know that he learned to speak by shadowing, it would be illogical to conclude that shadowing is a dangerous method; rather, it should be obvious that that person would have an even worse accent had he not done the fair dose of active imitation that he has done because of it. In this kind of instance, the method deserves credit for what is there, not censure for what is not. Listening to and imitating good methods, i.e., 1), is certainly the single most important means of beginning to develop one’s accent. When you notice any particular difficulty, however, reading, understanding, and applying 2) phonetic descriptions will help you far more than simply repeating over and over again. Specific accent reduction programs or courses 3), are hard to come by as “foreign language” methods, but must usually be sought in “second language” shops, if they are available at all. Generally, they simply condense and present 1) and 2) above. An interesting variety of this, however, is contained in the series “Acting with an Accent” by Dr. David Allen Stern, where he both discusses and demonstrates the principle of finding the “locus” or focal point of pronunciation for any given style of speech. 4) spot correction is fine ad hoc, but better if informed by 2) phonetic rules. 5), getting in tune with the frequency of a living language as it is spoken around you, may sound new-agey, but I hope others will concur that the most rapid improvement in a rusty accent, in a rusty language overall, occurs within a very short time of being immersed in its environment again after a long absence. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 43 21 April 2008 at 6:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Professor Arguelles,
Thank you for the detailed breakdown of the levels in pronunciation achievement. Pronunciation is something I take very seriously, and it is my hope to attain something as high as #8 on your list with most of my languages. I have observed that the better your accent, the better your interlocutor thinks you are, and the more likely he is to converse naturally with you and overlook grammatical errors. One other thought: it's been suggested that language converge in complexity the more advanced level one reaches in them. (I.e. one might reach basic competency in Italian more quickly than in Russian, but becoming an advanced and articulate speaker of both takes a similar commitment in time and effort.) I wonder if it is the same with regard to difficulty of pronunciation. Paul D. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6371 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 43 21 April 2008 at 8:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Excellent break down of accents. I couldn't have done it better myself. Accents are one of the most intriguing things to me.
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| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6549 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 4 of 43 21 April 2008 at 10:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Professor, this is excellent general information. I notice that you are studying Mandarin now. What, if anything, would you do differently in learning pronunciation of a tonal language vs a non-tonal language?
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| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6079 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 43 21 April 2008 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you Professor.
Very good. I would like to ask the same as Leosmith. If you went to live in your languages country and really tried to imitate what everyone says (therefore improving accent), how long, do you think, you should spend there to attain a level 8-9? Or even a 10? Thanks TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6185 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 43 21 April 2008 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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TheElvenLord, the Professor once mentioned in this room that it takes the average person around 15 years of living in Korea in order to reach a near-native or better proficiency in the Korean language. Given the proposed difficulty of the language, you may be able to assume that other languages could take less time, but I am pushed to think that there is no definitive answer. If you never talk but always study, your accent will remain very low in the scale. If you talk a lot, your accent will improve quickly. Furthermore, some people are simply better at imitating sounds and accents than others. And finally, some people for some reason never seem to be able to escape their foreign accent and broken grammar for many, many years.
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| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6079 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 43 21 April 2008 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting - i thought it would be lower than that. Especcially if you were immesred. I was thinking more around 2-3 maybe 4-5 years.
My reason for that is, Children speak with a native accent and almost perfect pronounciation at around 4-5 years old. But whether or not this would work for non-children (teenagers +) i have no idea - i was just wondering what the timescale was. Thanks TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7076 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 8 of 43 21 April 2008 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | ||
I have noticed this as well in my studies, and likewise I aim at the 7-8 level on the Professor's scale for this reason. There is nothing worse than trying to listen to natural conversation and only getting broken language given in return. I am personally embarrassed to be an English speaker when I hear fellow natives speak in broken sentences to people that are obviously non-native but have a solid grasp of the language. I actually physically cringe. I even know English teachers that do this! But anyway, thanks for the breakdown Professor. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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