Pronunciation is not that important

In Taiwan, people pay too much attention to pronunciation when learning a foreign language. Often, people who have “native-like” American accents are considered good teachers. It sometimes even seems they consider accent more important than grammar and vocabulary, or even content! As is often the case, those who have “impeccable” native-like accents are those who started in their early childhood. Because they learned English before their cognitive skills have fully developed, if you transcribe what they are saying, you might notice that their grammar and vocabulary are quite “non-native-like”. Worse still, teachers are often hired solely on the basis of their native-like accent, without taking into consideration proficiency in other respects.

But the reality is, accent and pronunciation are not that important when it come to English. English is a language used mainly for international communication. The main purpose of learning English today is not to communicate with its native speakers. If communicating with native speakers was the sole purpose, as would be the case for learning, say, German or Japanese, it does make sense to try to sound as closely as possible to the native speaker. But if the purpose is to communicate with other second language speakers of English, the target would be to be able to communicate as successfully as possible, and not how native-like you can sound with lots of “道地” idioms and slangs.

And for international communication, native-speaker English is not the most useful model. There are studies that show that native speakers are not the most easily understood in international communication. Rather, someone with a strong, for example, Arabic accent, who speaks slowly and clearly without using difficult idioms and slangs, would be a more effective communicator.

Actually, this fact is quite clear from experience. When I first went to England, I felt it was much easier to understand my fellow overseas students from Spain, Germany and Indonesia, than English people. For starters, native speakers, especially students, don’t enunciate very well, and also tend to speak very fast. And they use lots of peculiar slangs and unfamiliar idioms that are difficult for second-language users of English to understand.

Nor is it that attaining native-likeness is desirable. How we use language reflects our identity. So the way I use English should reflect my own culture and identity, not that of an American or British. By trying to sound like a North American, you are assimilating yourself to North America, thus trying to become someone you are not. Besides, it is better nowadays not to be mistaken as an American, especially in certain countries!

In the first place, anyway, a native speaker accent is not attainable for many of us. If you didn’t start very early in your life, it is likely that you will never drop that “foreign” accent no matter how hard you try. There are theories that indicate that this is so because you want to protect your own identity unconsciously. Besides, if you are a teacher, you should already know very well how “unteachable” pronunciation is. So why waste our time trying to attain something which many specialists have already proven to be unattainable?

Speaking from my experience, excessive attention to accent also takes away due attention from grammar and vocabulary. So it is quite possible that you can speak English more fluently when you are paying less attention to pronunciation. This is definitely the case for me. So the days of using half my brain thinking how to sound British is over. The brain is for thinking some better stuff!

I studied in the UK. When I was there, I was a teenager. So, understandably, I had a lot of peer pressure to sound like other students around me. I tried very hard to sound like English young people, and I was quite successful in that attempt. In fact, many native speakers commented that my accent was native-like.

But soon after arriving in Taiwan, I realized that having a native-like accent was not always so useful. The job interviewer was a native-speaker so she rated my English highly, but the problem was that many of my students found it hard to understand me. Because I sounded differently from the way they were used to (Taiwanese students are generally exposed only to American English), some even complained to the school that my “Japanese accent” was too strong!

So I tried to drop my British accent. I started sounding like a “foreigner”, but it was very clear that people could understand me better. Not only that, I felt more confident because I no longer had to pretend to be what I was not in the first place: a native speaker of English from Britain.

My English now reflects my unusual background and who I am. Basically it is Japan English, because that’s where I first learned the language. And I became fluent in it while I was in Britain, so that explain the trace of British flavor in my English. However, most of my interlocutors coming from Taiwan and other Chinese-speaking backgrounds, I demonstrate feature of China/Taiwan English especially in syntax and lexis. Finally, I did my PhD in the Philippines, where I extensively used English in all domains of life; so definitely, my English is greatly influenced by Philippine English. (I suspect this is what makes my English easier to understand for my Taiwanese students. I picked up the rhotic “r” while in the Philippines. Not only that the Taiwanese are more used to American English, pronouncing the “r” makes it more orthographically faithful.)

Everybody can speak in more than one way. It is thoroughly natural and normal to sound differently in different situations. When I get caught up in the content and start paying less attention to accent, I notice that I sometimes switch back to my former non-rhotic accent. (Both Japan English and British English are non-rhotic, and I guess I find it more natural and easier to pronounce.) When I speak to my students or Filipinos, I notice that I immediately regain my rhotic R’s. And when I have to speak formally and pay extreme attention to speech, I suddenly start sounding British again! Another situation in which I unconsciously sound British is when I am with native speakers or my boss. I know that they look down on “foreign accents”, and that it might jeopardize my work!

So my advice is: Start sounding like yourself, not like a token native speaker.