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Acquiring the native accent | ||
Tags: Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6470 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 9 of 25 14 February 2008 at 9:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would never go so far as to say that foreigners will "always" have accents, but after doing some traveling around and meeting non-native speakers of my own language and hearing Americans speak other languages, I would have to say that a pretty clear majority of foreigners have at least a slight accent.
My guess is that people who start learning a language at a young age have a somewhat easier time of learning to speak a language without an accent. Of course, it also helps when your teachers have a native accent. If all of your input in a language is from non-natives who have an accent, you can't expect to speak your target without a non-native accent. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| virgule Senior Member Antarctica Joined 6651 days ago 242 posts - 261 votes Studies: Korean | Message 10 of 25 14 February 2008 at 9:35am | IP Logged | |||||
In my experience it's got a lot to do with identification. If you see yourself as a foreigner, you're less likely to pick up a local accent. I'm talking about integration at a deep level. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| brian00321 Senior Member United States Joined 6409 days ago 143 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 11 of 25 14 February 2008 at 10:52am | IP Logged | |||||
I sort of disagree with this. The situation that the teacher, regardless of whether they are native or not, puts the students in is what's most important. From my experience, college and high school, teachers tend to toss novice language learners into a pool without any floaties. From day one you're automatically encouraged to repeat after the teacher. Examining my sorry German class I have to say the effect is pretty bad. When doing conversation practices students tend to look at the script and therefore start pronouncing things not the way X language is supposed to be pronounced but more with how the letters correspond to their native language. After hours of hearing even the simplest of words as Frau, drei, or Geburtstag being butchered with American Rs and in other ways (try hearing Heute being pronounced hoy-tay), I have to say teachers do a better job handicapping a student's ability to pronounce instead of helping it. But then again, it solely depends on the teacher too. Most take a grammatical approach which, more likely than not, will pave the road for a bad accent. Like I said in another post, it would be nice if teachers took a neo-approach to language classes. Instead of spoon feeding, teach them how to learn the language, not the language itself. Edited by brian00321 on 14 February 2008 at 10:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rodYon Pentaglot Newbie Croatia Joined 5959 days ago 38 posts - 38 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Serbian, Croatian*, Latin, French, English Studies: Italian | Message 12 of 25 14 February 2008 at 11:33am | IP Logged | |||||
i agree, but there is a great difference between a school teacher and a course teacher, probably most due to the number of learners and to specialized approach. course teacher can work individually with each learner, which is nor practic nor convenient to do in public schools and it would be too much time-consuming. the way i see it, that grammatical approach you mentioned is good for awakening the interest in learners, which then can enlarge their savoir de la langue by taking private tutoring, courses, watching films or any kind of multimedia. you have a class of 25 learners, if only five decide to really learn, master, the language, you have done a very good job. of those 20, at least 15 will be able to communicate using basic language skills, sufficient for basic tourist purposes, f.ex., where a native accent isn't really an imperative. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| vanityx3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6272 days ago 331 posts - 326 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 13 of 25 14 February 2008 at 12:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thinking about this some, I think that a lot of times these people that still have a bad accent even after living in a foreign country 5 or more years, their bad accent comes from the fact that outside of their homes is the only place they're regularly speaking the foreign language; but inside their house and with their families they still speak there native language. So that may be why they can't pick up the native accent well. I think, for instance, if a person who speaks French, but with a terrible accent is placed in France, if they have no friends or family living in France and never have a chance to speak their native language at all, I think that this person would acquire a native accent very quickly, because it would be all that they hear and speak all day long. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6055 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 14 of 25 14 February 2008 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
i don't think the amount the language is spoken and accent are interconnected. it's not like you will suddenly magically gain your native accent if you speak it at home. some people get the accent right right away, some people don't. these have to either work consciously on it, or nothing will help; sit down with a native speaker, get the sounds right and then apply them in talk. just talking and talking won't help. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| vanityx3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6272 days ago 331 posts - 326 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 15 of 25 14 February 2008 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
What I was saying is if you never once have a chance to speak your Native language, you'll learn the native accent much faster. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6055 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 16 of 25 14 February 2008 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
also, not true, this doesn't have any logic to it. you will certainly learn your desired language way faster, but as said, the accent won't appear magically. either you get it right from the beginning or you have to consciously work on it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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