Written by: Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Last month, I wrote about the findings of research I have been doing into the challenges non-native English speakers face on their language learning journey. One of the biggest sources of negative feelings stems from people's unfavourable opinions about their accent and pronunciation.
Dealing with negative feelings around pronunciation ‒ why do you need to be 'prefect'?
Perhaps more than any other aspect of speaking a foreign language, pronunciation can trigger unpleasant feelings such as shame and embarrassment. I suspect this is because pronunciation has a big impact on whether people can understand you (and whether you can understand them!). Moreover, I believe that some people feel under pressure to speak like a native speaker would and believe that they cannot fit in unless they 'get rid of' their first language accent. What interests me is how different people respond to having an accent and how their responses trigger different behaviours. For example, I once worked with a highly proficient student from Germany who had been living in the UK for several years. Although her pronunciation was very clear, she retained a slight German accent which she wanted to 'get rid of' because she was fed up of being asked where she was from. In this case, is it the 'foreign accent' that is the problem or the speaker's negative feelings about being asked about their origins?
Other people wear their accents as a badge of honour as for them, it symbolises their roots and cultural heritage. For example, my partner, who is Vietnamese, has excellent English and is virtually at native-speaker level. However, there are slight signs in his speaking that he was not born in the UK. He is proud of this as it helps him feel connected to his country of origin.
Why is pronunciation such a big issue?
I have worked with several clients who had excellent English skills in many areas but who had weak pronunciation in comparison. Let's look at some of the reasons why this may be the case.
Many language learners begin learning English at school. Their teachers are likely to be from their country so may not have well-developed pronunciation and the focus is often on grammar, reading and writing. Many people do very little speaking practice at school so it's hardly surprising that pronunciation skills are not developed. As a consequence, bad habits develop early and are uncorrected while people are young enough to change them easily.
Pronunciation is a physical skill, something that people often overlook. If you want to improve your grammar, you can do exercises and learn new rules. If you want to improve your pronunciation, however, you need to devote time to understanding what your tongue and mouth should be doing physically; it's not enough to mentally understand the difference between /i:/ and /I/, you need to practice until you can physically differentiate the two sounds.
Because of this, improving pronunciation takes a great deal of time, practice and patience, another factor that is often overlooked. As a result, people can lose heart and interest too soon, believing that they will always have 'bad pronunciation' but that there is nothing they can do about it.
This is a shame as weak pronunciation makes you significantly harder to understand and can cause breakdowns in communication. Weak pronunciation may also affect how people perceive you. For example, if you do not have well-developed stress and intonation patterns, you may sound bored, abrupt or unenthusiastic, none of which would give a positive impression of you. Finally, not being able to pronounce individual sounds clearly can affect what people think you are saying and can reduce your intelligibility, a key factor in today's world of Zoom meetings!
Do you need to have a 'perfect' English accent?
In my opinion, no non-native speaker needs to have native-speaker levels of pronunciation. However, I do believe that you do need to be able to speak clearly and to have a reasonable understanding of how the English pronunciation system works so that you can understand the natural flow of speech. This includes features like connected speech, linking sounds and stress placement.
If working for a 'perfect' English accent (or a native-speaker level of pronunciation) is something you want, I believe this is possible… as long as you are prepared to work hard, work consistently and adopt an attitude of curiosity rather than a mindset of self-hate and blame. Pronunciation can be massively fun to practice but is difficult to use accurately in real-time speaking.
Why is pronunciation difficult to practice?
As I have said, pronunciation is a physical skill. You need to memorise where the tongue goes and what shape your lips need to make for each and every sound in the language you are learning. And as some of these will be different from your first language, you then need to practice until you have thoroughly mastered this. Most people simply do not allow enough time for this basic foundational stage. In addition, you most likely have bad habits to overcome, and this means unlearning one set of physical movements and replacing them with new and improved ones. Again, people underestimate this, both in terms of difficulty and the time needed to improve.
How can you start to improve your pronunciation?
If you are serious about improving your pronunciation, be prepared to do some serious work. You will need to practice on a regular basis, daily if possible. You may need to go right back to the beginning and start by ensuring you can pronounce the individual phonemes properly before building up from here. Do not be ashamed if this is true for you, even if you have been speaking English for many years! We all have bad habits in our foreign languages, so taking the time to work on them is a positive step to take!
If you can afford it, find a teacher who specialises in teaching pronunciation. It will be a big help to have someone who can act as a guide and give you feedback as you progress. If you really want to achieve native-speaker levels of pronunciation, you may like to work with an 'accent reduction coach' rather than an English teacher.
Make voice recordings. Although no-one likes to do this, voice recordings are a great way to check your pronunciation. You can make voice recordings of things such as:
minimal pairs, for example /i:/ and /I/
reading a short passage out loud an comparing your recording to that of a native speaker. This works really well if you use graded readers as they often come with an MP3 recording.
reciting limericks or poems designed to help you practice features of pronunciation such as stress patterns or linking words. If you have a teacher or native speaker friend, you could ask them to record the limerick or poem so you have a model to compare yourself with.
We all have accents, and to seek the ’perfect accent’ makes little sense to me. What is the perfect accent? Who speaks it? Why is this accent perfect compared to others? Ultimately, I believe that as long as a person’s pronunciation is intelligible, there should be no further pressure on them to sound like a native speaker and it is the choice of each individual how far they wish to improve their pronunciation.
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Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Sarah Henderson-Sharon is an expert in helping non-native English speakers overcome Second Language Anxiety: the fear, shame, and anxiety they experience when speaking English. A teacher with 17 years of experience, Sarah became aware of the damaging impact of Second Language Anxiety four years ago. Since then, Sarah has dedicated herself to helping her clients understand and move beyond their fears so that they can use English with confidence. She is the founder of Think Positive English where she offers 1-2-1 programs and a community speaking club empowering members to improve their spoken English.
