Pronunciation and accents

-
I was asked by a student to teach her better pronunciation, she wanted to sound like a native English speaker. I will correct students' pronunciation when it's hard to understand, but when a student is producing the target language correctly, and can be understood, then I don't interfere. Some people do have the goal of sounding like a native speaker, but the question is, which native speaker do you want to sound like? The Queen? Theresa May? Me? Essentially I think it boils down to accent, and which accent you want to speak with. My personal opinion is that I like regional accents, it reminds us of our origins and is an easy conversation starter when you meet someone now. I've never tried to change my accent, although it has changed over the years as I have lived in different places. So to change the accent of a student, more than merely helping them to say a particular word, I feel this is out of my remit and more for a voice coach to work on. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This phonetic Labyrinth

-
A student recently gave me a copy of this poem, written during the 1940s. It is a truly wonderful thing to see the foibles and curiosities of the English language laid out like this. Enjoy-but ignore the last line of the poem if you are an English learner! Thanks to RP. “This PHONETIC LABYRINTH” The following was written during World War II by a Dutchman whose knowledge of English was very extensive.  It was published in “Vry Nederland,” the temporary organ of the Free Netherlands community in exile. To that publication, which is now defunct, acknowledgement is made for reprinting the verses here. Dearest creature in creation, studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse, sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse, I will keep you, Susy, busy, make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear–so shall I!  Oh, hear my prayer! Pray console your loving poet, make my coat look new, dear, sew it! Just compare heart
Read more

Spiky profiles

-
Language learners often have something known as 'spiky profiles', they are not equally good in the four sections of language learning (reading, writing, listening, speaking). For example, if you learned English by watching films in original English with the subtitles in your own language, then your listening skills are probably quite good. Although, that doesn't mean that you can write if you have never practiced that skill. The key to helping students is to identify these areas where they have weaknesses and focus activities on those areas, while building on their strengths. It's not only skills that the student has but also their mindset and motivations. If, for example, a student needs to pass a speaking test and is very shy, and unwilling to talk, then the teacher needs to build their confidence up so the student has a decent chance when they get into the room with the examiner. On the other hand, a very outgoing student who loves to talk but makes lots of errors of
Read more

welcome

-
I am an experienced TEFL teacher with a PGCE qualification. I offer IELTS exam training, English conversation, Business English and academic writing classes. I am usually available between 9am and 3pm GMT weekdays in person in Dundee, Scotland or on skype. Please email to discuss your exact tuition requirements.
Read more