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Neglecting speaking/acquiring accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| marklewis1234 Newbie United States Joined 5249 days ago 32 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 14 17 June 2011 at 10:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
Recently I have been doing alot of reading (with audio acompaniement)in my target language (Spanish) which I feel is helping alot. However, I have recently realised that I have been neglecting speaking practice (by this I do not mean conversation, but simply practicing saying words and sentences out loud). If I carry on like this for a significant period are my speaking skills/accent/pronounciation likely to suffer,or will the fact that I am doing alot of listening to natives via the audio portion of my reading maintain/enhance my speaking skills. Lastly, does anyone have any good suggestions for practicing speaking/pronunciation/accent? Thanks 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5946 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 14 18 June 2011 at 4:34am | IP Logged | ||
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My view: listening only leads to bad pronunciation.
Why? Because you can understand a lot without hearing everything. Eg R vs RR. There are very few possible sentences where the difference is important to understand what you hear. *BUT* you won't really be understood if you can't pronounce the difference between R and RR 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6314 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 14 18 June 2011 at 5:11am | IP Logged | ||
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Just listening without practicing pronunciation will lead to bad pronounciation. But that doesn't seem like such a interesting statement. Listening a lot to understand the sounds well before beginning to speak - that will be a big help. Edited by newyorkeric on 18 June 2011 at 5:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5388 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 14 18 June 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Are you sure about that? We have minimal pairs such as caro and carro, pero and perro, but they belong to different word classes so context should make the meaning clear. I'm not sure that even mixing up quería with querría would lead to a serious misunderstanding in an actual conversation. PS. I'm not advocating incorrect pronunciation. Edited by tractor on 19 June 2011 at 4:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5701 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 14 18 June 2011 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is just my opinion, but I think you'll have to invest some effort to acquire a good accent. Whether you do the bulk of that before, while or after learning how to understand spoken language is up to your preferences; you have to try out what works for you. The only thing you shouldn't do is to learn how to form sentences without being able to pronounce them in a way a native speaker can understand.
I personally prefer to focus on listening first, but I involuntarily practice words and phrases I've picked up once I think I know what exactly they mean and when they can be used. I often don't even notice it myself. (See me walking to town, muttering to myself ...) Oh, and: echo, parrot, shadow, sing along, read aloud, read aloud and act out the roles, memorize movie dialogues, sing along to songs, rap along to songs, mimick your conversation partner, use a pronunciation trainer - whatever floats your boat. Edited by Bao on 18 June 2011 at 11:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LtM Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5795 days ago 130 posts - 223 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 6 of 14 19 June 2011 at 5:17am | IP Logged | ||
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In order to speak well, you really must practice speaking. Part of good pronunciation is actually muscle control -
- being able to control the muscles of your mouth, lips, and tongue in order to make the sounds of your specific L2 correctly. Like any other muscle control, this takes (a lot of) practice in order to be able to do it easily and quickly. I prefer a combination of reading aloud (so that I can pronounce the words at my own pace, repeating words/sections as necessary) and echoing recorded native speakers (to improve pronunciation and intonation). I wouldn't advise simply reading aloud (with no audio accompaniment) until you're quite versed in the basics of pronunciation of your chosen L2; otherwise, you'll simply be practicing things wrong. However, doing a lot of listening (of good material) will not in itself cause your speaking skills to suffer; it simply won't improve them either (although it will be good for your listening comprehension, vocabulary, etc.). In my experience, each individual aspect of the language needs to be practiced in order to improve that specific aspect. I don't believe that there is really any way around that fact. To understand native speech, you have to listen to a lot of native speech, over time. To converse well, so that the language flows off your tongue like your L1 does, takes a lot of practice, over a significant period of time. To pronounce the language well, you have to actively practice the pronunciation, again, over time. Edited by LtM on 19 June 2011 at 5:18am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sandman Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5343 days ago 168 posts - 389 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 14 19 June 2011 at 8:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there some schools of thought that say you should listen to thousands of hours of speech before you even open your mouth?
To me it seems reading without listening is the worst culprit as you're reinforcing your bad habits sub-vocally without having developed the correct sounds yet. With listening, as long as you know what your listening to (have text available) I don't see how it will develop many bad habits (everything we do potentially reinforces bad habits to some degree it seems). You will still have to practice pronunciation and get your motor skills working appropriately before you'll be able to speak later on, but I can see how trying to speak early on could lead to far worse results as you lock in your bad pronunciation habits before really even having an "ear" for the language. To me, speaking too early is like swinging a bat or a golf club (or performing any other motor skill) a few thousand times before you have a clue about proper technique. It may sound right to the novice, but without natives to hover over you and fix every little mistake, you may just be practicing a lot of garbage. Edited by Sandman on 19 June 2011 at 9:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5388 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 8 of 14 19 June 2011 at 10:45am | IP Logged | ||
It's a very stupid piece of advice. It's a waste of time. Start listening carefully, reading out loud and speaking from day one, and you'll acquire decent pronunciation long before you have spent thousands of hours. Edited by tractor on 19 June 2011 at 10:48am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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