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Free accent reduction methods? | ||
Tags: Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 43 11 March 2014 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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In that case I suppose the only thing you have to do is to practice prosody, one way or the other. Most sentence structures are covered in just a page or two, and knowing where to put the stresses is important. How to practice prosody other than repeating sentences in a focused manner? I don't know. Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 23 March 2014 at 10:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 10 of 43 11 March 2014 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
There's repeating input, and then there's repeating input. I find typical 'listen and repeat' exercises absolutely worthless, where I hear something once or twice, then try to repeat it - and banging my head against it by trying a handful of times doesn't really help. On the other hand, with several minutes listening to a phrase, followed by repeating it more and more often in chorus with the speaker, I get surprisingly decent results - I've managed to get both vowels and intonation patterns right, including ones which entirely evaded me with more typical methods. Olle Kjellin has also written that it works best in groups of seven or more, with naturally variation in each repetition, but that he uses recordings in his car alone successfully; I have no reason to doubt that the former would be more effective. You can't fix 23 isolated words in minutes of practice. You often can fix (or greatly improve) one, or a short phrase. Not always - I spent years trying to get a properly back 'u' sound right, as you know. But I'm yet to find an intonation pattern that doesn't yield to this method of practice if I can do at least a sort-of-ok job on the phonemes. It's also crucial to note that his method calls for repeating short phrases: if your intonation is entirely accurate, small phonetic errors aren't necessarily perceived as foreign - small children aren't considered to have a foreign accent, despite mangling various phonemes, partially due to having language-appropriate intonation, which they start displaying in babbling even before they produce words. Intonation can't cover for absolutely incomprehensible phonemes, but it covers for a lot. I find that smaller phonetic details which aren't phonemic in your target language (like aspiration, nasalization, voicing/devoicing in certain word positions, etc) tend to yield pretty easily to this method - definitely more easily than getting vowels to the point where a native speaker agrees they're exactly right. Obviously, getting them entirely right in a couple of phrases doesn't generalize to being able to get them right al the time spontaneously, but it's a step. I fully agree with you that phonemic distinctions are important, and that phonetic awareness is very helpful. I fully agree with Olle Kjellin's writings, though, that most studies on pronunciation are reflections of it being taught badly (or not at all), rather than what is possible. I think it's worth noting that he's written about explicitly teaching phonemes people find difficult, too, and his books are full of detailed analysis of Swedish, including pitch accent analysis. I agree with you about shadowing. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shinkarom Diglot Groupie Ukraine allthetongues.hRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4308 days ago 40 posts - 59 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian* | Message 11 of 43 23 March 2014 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you Arekkusu, jeff_lidquist and Volte.
I am almost ready to by into Olle Kjellin's method (especially since even a short repetition of a sentence at different tempos at least partly ingrained its intonation into my head). But I would like to know wheter are there any anecdotal evidence that there are people using it and read their reports. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 12 of 43 24 March 2014 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Swedish accent is a 3-page thread about a Slovene woman who used the method for Swedish.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shinkarom Diglot Groupie Ukraine allthetongues.hRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4308 days ago 40 posts - 59 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian* | Message 13 of 43 24 March 2014 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Since I will document my progress in Polish pronunciation and prosody on its own thread,
let's stray back on the path. Are there any other alternatives? The more theories one knows about, the better. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| namsskogan Newbie Norway Joined 5595 days ago 18 posts - 53 votes Speaks: Norwegian* Studies: German | Message 14 of 43 28 March 2014 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here is a blog which describes Luca Lampariello’s method for accent reduction
How To Work on Accent Reduction Edited by namsskogan on 28 March 2014 at 7:12pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5207 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 43 31 March 2014 at 11:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I was about to post about Luca's method actually. He also has a series of posts on his own blog about his "phonetic analysis" method, including videos.
Personally I've been experimenting with a combination of that and Olle's method (essentially, doing the phonetic analysis on the phrases and then doing lots of listens and repeats) for a few months, on and off. I'd say that I've seen improvements, but so far they're inconsistent and my accent is still far from good. It takes a lot of time and effort for the new habits to actually make their way into your spontaneous speech, and I'm awful at pronunciation and accent as it is so it's going to take a lot of work, so I can't yet comment on how effective the methods are. Ask me again in a year's time :). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Elanguest Newbie Malta elanguest.com Joined 3866 days ago 19 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* | Message 16 of 43 28 April 2014 at 11:11am | IP Logged | ||
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I know accentschool.com has some free lessons for English learners, then you can pay for private tutoring if you
want. They are pretty good and cover both phonetics and prosody, if I remember correctly. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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