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Learning in your native accent? | ||
Tags: Native Language | Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| katilica Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5471 days ago 70 posts - 109 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: French, Catalan | Message 1 of 16 21 February 2010 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am posting this blog post instead of the actual study (it has a link to it anyway) because like some comments on there said, I don't see the point to it. Of course it easier to learn a language in your own accent since our ears are accustomed to that sound. Does anybody here think that this method would ever be efficient in the long-run after the beginning stages? Should it never be used in the first place in order to avoid forming bad habits? I ask this because I know there are various points of view on this. There are those that say mistakes are okay just as long as you don't make a habit of them. We also have the two extremes where some believe that you can make all the mistakes you want and you will learn from them then others who believe you should avoid them at all costs (Antimoon is a good example of the latter). So... what do you guys think?
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 16 21 February 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I see no point in developing bad habits. Native accent and correct grammar should be the model from the very
start. It is however OK that the students make mistakes. It is both unavoidable and necessary for the students to make mistakes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 3 of 16 21 February 2010 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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When you learn to ride a bike you learn from your mistakes -- hitting the ground hurts and you immediately know what you've done wrong.
Small vocabulary/phrase mistakes like mixing up "casado" and "cansado" or saying "je suis chaud" instead of "j'ai chaud" get an immediate reaction and you can learn from them, but mistakes in deeper features of the language can take a while longer to spot. By the time you realise you've not been understood, you don't know where you went wrong, or you're in such a knot that everything goes wrong, not just one thing. As for the accent, I've always stuck up for Michel Thomas's accent on the grounds that he teaches the important points of the sound system, and that a native accent isn't immediately comprehensible to the learner. What's done in this study is totally removing the foreign sound system, which I don't believe is a good thing. Contrary to the big bold headlines, the study does not suggest that teachers should use the students' native accent. Note the researchers' conclusion: ""This research lays emphasis on the importance of continuing investigation into the cognitive perspectives of accent in order to gain a better understanding of how we learn languages other than our native tongue." Their conclusion is that more study is needed. They looked at an extreme case (learner's native accent) that no-one in their right mind would apply, but with the scientifically valid aim of having one clear variable. If anything comes of this it'll be a wider use of specially devised "learner accents" that assist the learner to build a map of the salient distinctions in the language. Reductio ad absurdum: is there any benefit in teaching a Spanish speaker to say "specious" in a Spanish accent? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JoshN Newbie United States Joined 5410 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 16 22 February 2010 at 5:29am | IP Logged | ||
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How important is it to achieve near native accents, anyway? I know some people want to sound like a native, but I detect a bit of egotism occasionally when hearing that (to avoid flames, except all people on this board from that observation! ;-).
Simply from my experience as a native English speaker, I find many foreigners' accents mesmerizing. Now, perhaps as a youngish man, it's nothing more than testosterone speaking, but hearing a Mexican or Russian woman speaking with some accent is lovely. I would in no way prefer them to sound like people from California or Boston! As an American, I also find Australian and various British/UK "accents" equally wonderful to hear. If everyone from London sounded like a fellow Texan, it would be quite boring. Edited by JoshN on 22 February 2010 at 5:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 16 22 February 2010 at 6:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Where can I find a Spanish program in a Southern US accent? I don't really have much of a
redneck accent, but it would be funny to hear a redneck speaking Spanish :D Edited by Johntm on 22 February 2010 at 6:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 16 22 February 2010 at 6:58am | IP Logged | ||
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It generally helps getting across your point in communication if you modify your speech patterns (rhythm, prosody, accent) to mirror the other party's patterns (just enough to make them feel at home, not as much as to mock them).
Many people do this without being aware of it. It would probably be easier for any beginning student to hear the new language spoken in an accent that is modified like that, but nontheless is clear when it comes to features that are important to the target language, yes. How important it might be for a good teacher to have this skill, one of how many possible skills of 'good teaching' of similar importance is it? I have no idea, but then again, I'm not a good teacher. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7165 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 7 of 16 22 February 2010 at 7:10am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, it's all mesmerizing in the bar when you're picking up the girl, but follow that girl when she's applying for a job and needs to be taken seriously in society. The day you ever need a language for anything serious is the day you start to work like the dickens to eradicate as much of your accent as possible--not everyone learns a foreign language just for kicks. :) Edit: Also, unfortunately, all accents aren't created equal. For every charming French accent that generally elicits a positive response from native English speakers, there are -insert accents here-- that are not as well regarded. The thought makes me sad, because it's really so arbitrary. Edited by Sprachjunge on 22 February 2010 at 7:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JoshN Newbie United States Joined 5410 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 16 22 February 2010 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
So, if one is learning a language for recreation, rather than for utilitarian benefits, would you agree with me? I am under the assumption that most folks here are learning languages for enjoyment more than for employment opportunities. Aside from a few niche work or academic positions, why would someone need to know seven languages? I do admit I was thinking of things more from the standpoint of basic human interaction, rather than assessing employability. I have worked in sales, and a nice accent could be a very useful thing to get people to talk a bit longer. In sales, that's a good thing. ;-D But I can see that in many fields, having an accent could be an issue. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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