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pfn123 Senior Member Australia Joined 4894 days ago 171 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 81 of 83 28 December 2010 at 5:13am | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
All we do have is statistics |
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Statistics don't apply to the individual... ;)
2 persons have voted this message useful
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5822 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 82 of 83 28 December 2010 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
pfn123 wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
All we do have is statistics |
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Statistics don't apply to the individual... ;) |
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My point exactly.
Don't aim to be one of the pack -- aim to be an outlier.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5241 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish
| Message 83 of 83 28 December 2010 at 10:35pm | IP Logged |
Given the important distinction between general native-like speaking proficiency in a foreign language and the ability to mimic native-like pronunciation, I think what we have learned so far about developing excellent pronunciation would include most of the following:
1. Get professional or outside help
I include this because you can't judge yourself. An accent reduction specialist may be an expensive investment, but accent reduction or accent change is what these people do for a living. At least, get some kind of native speaker to work with.
2. Choose the right material to work with
Speaking encompasses many different styles or genres. Dialogues, speeches, giving instructions, lecturing, reading aloud, all require somewhat different skills. Choose a voice or speaking style that is age-appropriate and what you want to emulate.
3. Lots of focused and guided listening to comprehensible material
4. Starting with small samples, chorus extensively until you are comfortable, phonetically speaking, and then move on to larger units
5. Pay special attention to prosody (intonation and rhythm)
6. Memorize as much as you can: pieces of dialogues, bits of speeches, etc.
7. Use your time efficiently. Concentrate on difficult sounds and sequences of sounds
8. Mimic any gestures or nonverbal cues that add to the speaking experience
All of that and anything that other people might add will certainly help in achieving a good accent.
5 persons have voted this message useful
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