Know everything in shorts: About Accent and pronunciation
What is an accent? It is the carryover of sounds from the speaker’s original language to the second language. We are all born with the necessary speech patterns and the ability to learn & speak any language. We only speak the language we use in reinforcements. The sounds a child hears and the speech they come into contact with are what develop. Soon the child will acquire fine motor skills and gain control to make sounds on his own. The child begins by shouting and playing. Soon she can form simple vowel/consonant combinations, which is probably why mama and grandpa are often her first words, so they can do combinations and the huge response she gets from this reinforces her efforts. In 18 months, she can form about 20 words that have meaning and about 50 words that can be understood. Now, of course, babies have the ultimate diving experience. To gain control over their environment, they must learn the language and be surrounded by it around the clock.
Of course, a second language learner does not have these advantages. Even if you now live in an English-speaking country, and take classes to learn English, you still have the opportunity to speak and listen to your first language with friends and family, which is special. This is especially true in an immigrant county in the US immigrant community. People with the same language are possible.
Another challenge is expectations. For many years you have listened to speech patterns and you expect what others say. You are predicting what sounds will come next based on your knowledge of the language. I call it listening. To overcome this obstacle, it is necessary to actively listen to hear how others are speaking.
Learning to listen is learning, and I don’t mean that literally. I mean, if you can’t hear how to make sounds, you can’t learn to produce sounds. That’s why ETS has added speaking and listening sections to the TOEFL. Both skills are closely related.
Once you have heard the sounds, you should add them to your phonetic library. This means that you have the knowledge and understanding in your mind to make every sound or phone message in your first language. Now you need to add some sounds to the American sound system that are not in your native language sound system. Record yourself reading a short paragraph. Only 2-3 sentences in English. Then listen to the recording. Write exactly what you hear on the recording. Not what you meant, but what you actually said. How is this different from what is written? Did you say when it was written or did you say D? I suggest sticking with the first readers as it is easy to spot the differences.
If you need help improving your pronunciation, it’s best to go to a speech therapist rather than an ESL teacher. Speech therapists are trained in speech techniques and muscle physiology. They understand what goes into producing each sound and are trained to recognize and work on speech problems. Although his discourse is not the same as the problem of art, he has similar characteristics. When a client has trouble articulating certain sounds, the speech therapist can listen and see what they are doing differently and can explain and do them correctly. When a client has a speech, the speech therapist can observe and show what that person is doing differently and describe how the voice works so that it closely matches the norms.
