Accent or Pronunciation?
Or both?
As George Bernard Shaw wrote in the preface to Pygmalion in 1913 “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him’’. I would add not only another Englishman but most learners of English as a Foreign Language. I am sure you’ve been in a small talk or a meeting or a telephone call and you are thinking “What on earth is he trying to say?” or “I must probably be doomed to failure if I cannot catch this posh nice accent.”.
First let’s define what accent is and how different it is from pronunciation. The latter is related to someone’s ability to utter the words in a way that makes them intelligible to other speakers. Depending on their origin a speaker may pronounce the same word with a heavy accent or a lighter one, yet the message travels across clearly. Going further a speaker may develop an accent including the intonation and rhythm of speech. It is anything that makes you sound foreign. The classic faux pas is pronouncing things exactly as they would sound in the native language instead of listening to the way they are pronounced in the target language.
The big question is how much should you pursue a nice accent in English and how does this affect your identity as an effective speaker? The accent which sounds more neutral and “accentless” is perceived as correct and of higher prestige while the “non-standard” accent can often be misunderstood and stigmatised. What we need to keep in mind is that foreign learners are learning English as an International language either for general or business purposes and not to take the leading role in Downton Abbey.
This means that some emphasis should be placed in conforming to the phonetic rules that form a lucid accent and hence enhance the overall communication. And indeed it is music in the ears when a foreign speaker perceives learning as a holistic process and tries to develop a more “original” accent. But putting too much emphasis on the accent may be doing language learners a disservice and function as a psychological barrier to the fluency and accuracy of verbal communication.
In my experience, there are some nice tricks and strategies to apply which will help you conquer the battle of “accentism” more naturally and effortlessly.
• Train your ear not your tongue.
The more you listen, your ear will attune itself to the sounds of the target language. Short podcasts are available on the web about all topics of interest. Listen to them while you are driving, while you are running or while you are doing house works. Watch films and series without subtitles. Let the sounds get into your system.
• Practice, practice and practice.
You can spend time alone saying the words that are particularly challenging for you. You can even use the mirror as the counter reflection of yourself. Then expand the words in longer phrases or sentences. You can also use tongue twisters! ex. I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you. She sees cheese. If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?
• Find an interlocutor that you feel comfortable with and start forming an accent.
In the very beginning it may be your teacher but then it can be a friend or a member of your family. Find a safety net to experiment with accent.
• Make a bigger leap.
Next time you speak over the phone or zoom with a client or a colleague from abroad try to embellish your sentences with an accent. Keep in mind that the person on the other side may be feeling as stressed as you but the bottom line is that you both need to communicate.
• Have fun and act it out!
Play around and don’t take yourself too seriously. As long as there is a nice temperament the whole experience is nothing but enjoyable.
So just to start practising right away why don’t you try the following sentence in your best possible accent: “The Minister of Citizen’s protection made it explicit that the spread of Covid-19 has exponentially deteriorated especially in some rural areas.”
Ideas adapted by www.conversation.com and by Efi Panagiotopoulou