Two Important Aspects of Accent and Pronunciation in Second-language Acquisition

Variation of Accent and Pronunciation

Learners of second languages traditionally deal with four skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  Of these, accent and pronunciation affect speaking and listening.

Unlike written English, which differs only slightly from country to country, the spoken language has a lot of variation.

While it is true that native speakers don’t have much trouble understanding each other, learners might not find the transition from one dialect to another very smooth.

SEE ALSO: 5 Regular ESL Problems & Their Solutions

Should learners study every major dialect?

Here are some things that students of English should bear in mind when faced with all of this variation:

When learning to speak English, pick an accent and stick with it. In most cases, this is easy.  People growing up in the European Union, for instance, are taught to speak the British way, while Latin Americans tend to learn American pronunciation.  There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with trying to learn more than one pronunciation, but if you do, you might become overwhelmed.

Even native speakers stick with just one accent.  When Americans visit London, they don’t try to speak with British accents, so why should you? Keep things simple!

Learn to understand all the major dialects. While it’s often best to learn to speak using just one region’s pronunciation, the ability to at least understand two or more is almost essential these days.  This does not necessarily mean you have to do an in-depth, scholarly study of every major English dialect; it could be as simple as just watching films from all over the English-speaking world and becoming accustomed to the different accents.

Making the sounds of the language

Aside from the issues mentioned above, learners of English are also faced with the difficulty of actually making the sounds of the language correctly.

In second-language acquisition, grammar, listening, writing, and reading skills seem to involve only the mind, at least for the most part.  However, speaking involves the body, and sometimes it’s difficult to get the body to cooperate with the mind.  This is part of the reason we have accents when we speak foreign languages.

We try to make the sounds but the tongue simply can’t do what we need it to do.  Here are a few tips when faced with this problem:

Study the way the sounds of the language are made. What this involves is actually knowing what position the tongue and other articulators need to be in when making a given sound.  Sometimes this means looking at a diagram, picture or, more recently, virtual animation of speech mechanics that is available in Saundz.

A lot of people have accents not because they are physically incapable of making the sounds of the language, but because they aren’t entirely sure how to make those sounds.

Remember that most people don’t expect perfection. English speakers are usually pretty nice when it comes to others learning their language.  They aren’t going to think you’re stupid if you can’t pronounce squirrel perfectly, so try not to worry about it too much.

Being understood is what’s important.  Follow the tips above, change what you can, and if you still have a bit of an accent, it’s not a big deal.