Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5366 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona
| Message 1 of 4 15 December 2010 at 9:08pm | IP Logged |
There have been a lot of posts about aiming for near-native pronunciation and developing a good accent recently. This brings up an interesting question: if you only had time to fit in one method at home to improve your pronunciation (without additional help from native speakers, and discounting further listening which of course would be very useful), which of the above would you choose?
Edited by Teango on 15 December 2010 at 9:13pm
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Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5766 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French
| Message 2 of 4 15 December 2010 at 9:32pm | IP Logged |
Teango wrote:
(without additional help from native speakers) |
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I voted for recording/comparing yourself to native speakers, but only because you kicked the legs out from the option I would have chosen had it been available. I find getting immediate feedback from a native speaker to be hugely helpful.
There are lots of occasions where I listen, pause and repeat from learning materials, and convince myself that I am ultra onpoint, but doing the equivalent with a native speaker sobers me up. When you repeat after an audio sample by yourself, there is no one but yourself to tell you whether you have gotten sufficiently close.
Edited by Spanky on 15 December 2010 at 9:37pm
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5191 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 3 of 4 15 December 2010 at 9:59pm | IP Logged |
I was going to pick "Recording", except that I don't think recording yourself is necessary. Such a method was never available to humans until recently and it's not essential. The three other options only differ in the moment the repetition occurs. So I had to pick Others.
I doubt repetition alone amounts to anything; it's the focus that matters. The learner must aim to copy the speaker -- with the purpose of sounding just like him -- and needs to experiment with the boundaries of each phonological component. Imitation and experimentation are key.
I think most people who try to produce the sounds of the natives they hear (from audio, video, live, etc., from the memory they have of such exposure) with that goal in mind will be able to tell whether or not they are right -- not immediately, but over time.
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smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5118 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish
| Message 4 of 4 16 December 2010 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
Chorusing, but it has to be short, say, 1 to 5 syllabus at a time, played on an infinite loop (or keep clicking Play). Volume just above mine.
At first I'd speak in a lower voice and *imagine that the voice from the recording is mine*, meanwhile trying my best to imitate it. Once in a while I speak up a bit and compare myself to the recording. I adjust myself and repeat the process.
When I was learning the Spanish R I used an mp3 that says "erre", noticed marked improvement, and finally got it within the next few days - after trying for over a year. I've always been using this method and well, I believe I sound good :)
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