Is there a difference between Accent and Pronunciation in Language Learning?

Is there a difference between Accent and Pronunciation in Language Learning?

Have you ever spoken with a foreign learner who has said that they are terrified to speak English as, in their words,  “I have a bad accent.”

Have you ever spoken about this and it turns out that they were told this by their teachers in school, which is not uncommon here in France, apparently – the premise being that it is better not to attempt to speak because of a “bad accent” rather than attempt to speak and reveal your “bad accent” to the world.

Is there a difference between accents and pronunciation, if indeed there is a difference – linguists appear to be generally ambiguous between the two, so I’ll set out what I understand to be where the differences lie.

I must state that I get by quite well in French, but I have an accent that immediately gives me away as being English and I don’t really want to change this, as it is sometimes an asset in certain situations.

This said, I firmly believe that accents can be left as they are, as long as pronunciation is understandable.

The word “accent” comes from the Latin, ‘Ad Cantus’ meaning singing, I won’t go into the various dictionary definitions, but we can all recognise that accent has a lot to do with identity – where a person comes from, in all meanings of the term – country, region, class, social status etc.

So what goes into the make-up of an accent?

Accents are what we acquire as we are growing up, from our parents peers and friends – as children we learn by imitation of what we hear, reproducing the sounds of our language based on models that we are surrounded by.

An accent can reveal identity, belonging to a particular social class and can be adapted to fit in with the group or social class of our choosing – accents help us to fit in with our peer group and can be modified to achieve this.

One of the aspects of pronunciation is accent, patterns of pronunciation and intonation which form a discrete entity that we call a particular accent, which can be on a macro and micro level, from region, or even village, to a national accent – which sounds absurd.

Cultural stereotypes can be consolidated and confirmed by accent, which can often go hand-in-hand with mannerisms assumed to be located in a certain nationality – the Gallic shrug being one example that strikes a tone with British people.

But, do we need to be able to imitate a Gallic shrug if we are speaking French in order to speak with a French accent.

The French, by the way are not aware of the “Gallic Shrug”, another example of stereotyping, along with the additions of “Oh la la’s” that nourish the assumed stereotype.

Without going off on a long tangent, I consider that accent is a blend of pronunciation, inflections, idiosyncracies, and even sounds such as ‘huh’ ‘ahh’, ‘arr’ etc., in English, ‘ben’ and ‘hein’ etc., in French – although being able to use and place the sounds used by natives accurately, is more a mark of fluency than accent and the two are not interlinked.

I am not saying that accent and pronunciation are the same thing, but they are so closely linked that it is difficult to give a ‘cut-and-dried’ definition and to map-out the boundaries of the two.
A strong accent in your mother tongue (L1), can make understanding very difficult, if not virtually impossible when speaking a foreign language (L2), but this is more linked to pronunciation than accent.

Take the pronunciation of the following in English : ‘Th’, ‘Sh’, the ‘ed’ sounds in past verbs such as, “wanted”, “worked” and “travelled” – three different pronunciations of the same two letters: ‘id’, ‘t’ and ‘d’.

The English pronunciation of ‘national’, ‘centre’, ‘origine’ and ‘prononciation’ in French throws up similar challenges, which supports my theory that people cannot hope to pronounce words in a foreign language without having clearly heard it first – and by ‘clearly’ I mean what was actually sounded and not what we think we hear.

Words that are similar in our own L1 to that of an L2 are even more difficult to pronounce, due to the fact that the model in our L1 is firmly rooted in our brains – it is a habit, that is very difficult to eradicate.

Pronunciation is linked to articulation, being able to move the mouth and tongue to produce the words, but also to intonation and syllable stress. In simple terms, an accent is a pattern of pronunciation, whereas, pronunciation is articulation and the way that words are spoken – confused yet?

To illustrate this point, have a look at Dick Van Dyke’s idea of a cockney accent from the musical “Mary Poppins” – note that this an anglophone speaking with English being his L1.

He actually did a better accent in the film when he played the old bank manager, but this tells us a lot about accents.

Take a look at Brad Pitt playing an Irish gypsy in the film, “Snatch”, where his accent, I am told, is spot-on.

As we can see, certain people are able to reproduce an accent to near perfection – there are also people who can reproduce their idea of a foreign accent in their own language that is recognised by others who speak their language as being accurate – an example that springs to mind is the British comedy “‘Allo, ‘Allo” – although the accent is unrecognised by French speakers and when used in French produces a strange sounding accent, very far from any French accent that exists.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3M8cj70vs[/embedyt]

This is again, an example of stereotyping, as innocent as it may be.

Allo, ‘Allo, was never a success in France – which is not really a surprise (nor a disaster), but it is mainly due to the fact that the stereotypes which make the comedy work, are not so easily recogniseable in French as they are in English.

As far as accents go, people often talk about others having a ‘good’ accent.

What do they mean by this?

Good for who? Compared to what?

The answer is that they often mean that it is an accent that they can easily understand – this being linked to second language speakers.There is no goo or bad accent, the reality is, that there is no standard accent in English.

It was once said that the purest form of Queen’s English was spoken in Scotland, around Inverness. However, today, linguists talk about “Englishes” or varieties of English, rather than “English” as a separate and identifiable entity.

The idea that one form of English exists is misguided, due to the “plasticity” and evolutionary nature of language – it is always changing by way of its sponge-like nature, where influences, modes and technology are changing language at a lightning pace, language is constantly evolving.

Other problems that L2 speakers have with accents and pronunciation are that they often speak too fast to be understood, syllable and word stress are altered, vowel sounds are deformed and rythmn and intonation are often linked to their own L1 and not the L2.

An example of word stress changing the meaning of a sentences:

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” can be read and interpreted in many ways, word stress can help us to get more of an understanding of the speaker’s intention however, have a look at the way this can be transformed by the stress falling on the bold words in the sentence.

As it stands, the sentence can be interpreted as the speaker not liking football, but this is only interpreted meaning and is not always guaranteed to be accurate of the speakers intentions, look how it can change:

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” – Somebody else will or I would never watch a match on TV.

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” – I insist that I will not.

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” – I will be playing instead or I will be at the stadium in person.

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” – Not the big match, but another one.

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” – Not the football, but the rugby match, but I will watch it on TV.

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” – I will be at the stadium to see it live.

“I won’t watch the football match on television tonight.” – I will record it and watch it in the morning.

A good tip for language learners is to note down the way words are said – thus working their ability to hear sounds in another language – phonetically, or at least the way in which they hear them, which can be very different to the way they are written.

The main reason for this is to remove the “parasitic” barriers of the L1 and to realise that the link between the written word and the spoken word is very much anchored in the pronunciation of the L1 and not the L2.

Examples of this are abundant and it is often curious to be corrected by a French native speaker when pronouncing an English word that has worked its way into the French language, but which is pronounced differently, generally because the stress and syllable pattern has changed, but also because the vowels are sounded as they are in French and not English.

Take for example “Rugby – Roohg-bee”, “Management – mahn – ahj-mon”, and “Thriller – Sree – lair” – sometimes unrecogniseable by English speakers, and when spoken back with the ‘correct’ English pronunciation can be equally difficult for French speakers to understand.

Some people will never get rid of their accent in a foreign language, and why should they? Do not despair, it is not a bad thing.

I know two people from Portsmouth in the UK, who, when speaking French, I can clearly hear their ‘Pompey’ accent, but French people often say that they have no accent when speaking French – perhaps there are certain accents that can easily be ‘lost’ in a second language – I haven’t heard the same with many French speakers, though.

Research shows that the age for true bilingualism is thresholded at around 14 years of age – which does not mean that they cannot reach a very high level of language competency, but there is a high possibility that they will never get rid of their L1 accent.

I would suggest that efforts are made less on accent eradication and more on listening skills and pronunciation – accents are charming at times, but bad pronunciation forms a barrier to understanding and ultimately, communication.

In short, accents tell us things about people – where they come from, their social group etc. – whilst pronunciation helps us to understand them, or at least what they are saying.

Language as a window into human nature

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Language as a window into human nature

Language and meaning are a fascinating subject – as illustrated in the video below, which shows the way, in which, speakers attempt to put meaning into words – sometimes producing the desired effect and sometimes failing miserably.

One of the most widespread misconceptions regarding communication is that we can transfer meaning, as a speaker, directly into the minds of the listener – much as a direct form of implantation – this is just not true, even if some sort of meaning is decoded.

Anyone who has tried to talk about a great film that they have seen, or attempted to retell a particularly funny joke, will know just how untrue this notion is.

Although the listener ends up with virtually the same knowledge as the speaker has on the subject, there is little control on the qualitative results of the communication – the speaker attempts to inject meaning into their words, but it is then left to the listener to take out and set the meaning into their own set of knowledge, experience and emotions.

Arguably, this illustrates the point that words cannot convey meaning – they can only carry a set of instructions from speaker to listener of how meaning is meant to be construed (from the point of view of the speaker).

Another illustration of this point is the way that written words can often cause problems in communication – see our post on written communication pitfalls.

Think about any book that you have read and enjoyed, only to be largely disappointed when you have seen the film – it is very rare that a film exceeds the book.

This is also true for the times when we have attempted to carefully craft a message – only for it to be misunderstood by the receivers – teachers and advanced learners may like to have a look at the video, which deals with these difficulties in a humourous way…

In this RSAnimate Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings.

12 Effective Language Learning Tips

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12 Effective Language Learning Tips

It’s that time of year again, the end of the holidays, time to re-invent, readjust and turn a new page, turn over a new leaf, start again with a clean slate.

In a couple of weeks the resolutions will be forgotten, in the past, oh well, let’s crack on, see you again in 12 months for the same old, same old.

If you are a language learner, then the feeling of broken resolutions may not be something that is unusual for you.

If you are learning a language, then you may have been influenced in the past by the promises of an easy fix. Hold on, have I mentioned this before? The reality for language learners, and indeed for any real, learning, is that you are in it for the long game.

So let’s pretend that resolutions work for a moment – as some surely (rarely?) do.

But, let’s call them objectives, just for the purposes of this post.

So here are 12 objectives (tips) for (language) effective learners.

Why 12, you may ask?

Let’s think of one a month, a maximum of 31 days, and at best, only 28 days to pursue the objective through to an end. In small, manageable, bite-sized chunks, which could then become a new habit for the better.

Most problems that language learners encounter are internal barriers and resistance to change. Many say that they just don’t have the time, but claim to be motivated to learn. Well, I’m sorry, but if you don’t make the time it just ain’t going to happen. Another of the internal barriers to learning is a resistance to changing old habits and methods of learning – if it didn’t work first time, then isn’t perhaps time to try another way? There are many more limiting behaviours which form barriers to learning, but we won’t go into these here.

OK, let’s have a look at the 12 objectives (tips) :

1. Start a learning journal – reflection is a hugely important and effective tool in learning. Technically the name is “metacognition” or ‘thinking about thinking’. This is pure process time, that is often rejected by adults as ‘process’ isn’t ‘action’ and action is what we should be doing, no? This is where a learner records insights, thoughts and feelings about learning, which can be reviewed at a later date to monitor changes and personal growth. Learning something new and then reflecting on it can be a powerful way of fostering critical thinking and choice-making in learning. It doesn’t matter in which form the journal is kept, although I would suggest a handwritten journal, however, it must be kept on a regular basis. Try this for 31 days (at least).

2. Listen for 15 minutes a day – Listen to the language for at least 15 minutes a day (EFLPodblog Podcasts are ideal for this), 7 days a week for 31 days. Alternate the types of listening that you do and try to think (using your Learning Journal) how you listen in your own language. Don’t try to understand everything – for those that know my techniques, try the WH? question process. Tune your ear into listening to the music of the language – if you can’t hear it, you’ll never get to understand it. Try this for 31 days (at least).

3. Turn your Spellcheck off – If you write emails, or use Word – try to write without a grammar check turned on. You can always spellcheck after you have finished writing. Try to memorise the mistakes you make on a regular basis and rectify them gradually. A spellcheck won’t help you learn, only thinking about and then acting upon it will help that. Try this for 31 days (at least).

4. Read a newspaper in the target language – at least once a week have a look at an online or hard copy of a newspaper. Reading can help in sentence construction and vocabulary building, but can also give insights into the target culture. It is interesting to see how foreigners see the same story that you can read in your own language too. Try this for 31 days (at least).

5. Use a monolingual dictionary – Bilingual dictionaries are great when you need to find a particular word, but they are often limiting, giving suggested translations of a particular word. However, a monolingual dictionary will help in seeing the word in use in sentences and help develop vocabulary by building upon the word and its usage. Try this for 31 days (at least).

6. Listen to music – Download the lyrics of songs you enjoy. Listen to the music, a great way to build up expressions and work on your listening memory. Try this for 31 days (at least).

7. Seize opportunities to use the language – go to an ‘after-work’ where you can use the language. Even if this may be less than straightforward, in terms of your language skills, you will gain a great deal by listening and interacting as much as you can in a social setting. It will be difficult, but not impossible. Try to go to one every two weeks at least for a month.

8. Learn an expression a day – write an expression a day that you pick up from Internet, emails, EFLPodblog, songs or other sources. Put it on a post-it, just out of eyeshot, try to say the expression to yourself, check you have said it right and then try to use it when you have a chance to speak in the language. Learning expressions is more effective than isolated words of vocabulary as you can roll them out without having to fish around for each individual word.

9. Join Twitter – start interacting through simple messages with native speakers of the language. You will be surprised how easy it is and how willing people are to communicate and help with your language skills. You don’t need to be on Twitter 24 hours a day – try 10 minutes a day – reading and when you have the courage, post a tweet. Try this for 31 days (at least).

10. Take chances – don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes, if not too habitual, help us learn, as long as we are able to reflect and adjust. Take the plunge and speak when you get the chance – it may not be perfect, but that’s not what you are striving for at the outset, but it will be communication.

11. Set objectives – yeah, I know that SMART objectives are very 1990, but they are, in fact very useful. Set objectives for what you are going to do for the week – you may stray from your plan, that is fine, but at least you will have a plan. Just going at an objective pell-mell is not a good way to progress – if you plan to go nowhere, you usually get there! Review your plan using your learning journal to see what works, and what isn’t working. Adjust, refine and change your plan, but always have one.

12. ENJOY! – Make a conscious effort to enjoy what you do. Don’t go looking at subjects that would never interest you in your own language, just because they happen to be in the target language. Do fun things, things that you enjoy or interest you. I know this sounds so glaringly obvious that I shouldn’t have to include it here, but it is surprising how many learners forget the fun-factor and end up learning very little and often give up. Try this for the rest of your life!

Try these tips, one a month if you like, let us know how things are going or if you have any other suggestions in the comments.

Happy New You!

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Child Development & Welfare

 

  • Child development refers to the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy.
    Listen to Linda, a Canadian, talking about her job and experiences.

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