Mispronouncing words and unstressed them

Question

hello, my problem is I cannot pronounce as native speakers my english is like my mothertoungue so what Ishould do to improve it.....thanks

YoungBuddy · Accepted Answer

I think, Listening is the key <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>

Raindoctor · Answer

Hmm, Listening does not help much since his native phonology interferes his listening capabilities. The best way to go about: learn phonetics and phonology of English, as well as those of your native language. Then you get to know where your native phonology is interfering: for instance, you may be applying your native syllabication on english words; native intonation; mapping your L1 phones to english words in a systematic, yet mispronouncing, way. And so on,

YoungBuddy · Answer

I am much more convinced that when a person starts learning a foreign Language, it would be a process of acquisition as well as learning.

It's like when a baby is born and starting to acquire the mother tongue Language of his family, and this baby has never heard yet of anything called " studying "
So I think that the process of learning should be associated with acquisition ( which is done unconsciously).

Raindoctor · Answer

Kids have an unique advantage of not being spoiled by some native language. Adults don't have that privilege; therefore, it is not worth applying the techniques useful for teaching kids. This is the same case with teaching a new paradigm in any domain of learning: for instance, fresh college students understand new ideas, which contradicts the prevailing wisdom, better than do the tenured faculty who been peddling old ideas.

YoungBuddy · Answer

raindoctorAdults don't have that privilege; therefore, it is not worth applying the techniques useful for teaching kids

Then what would you call the activities included in most English student's books !!
There is always a communication part included, in which you are told to work in pairs, either for a discussion or a role-play exercise.

Learning through acquisition is a theory that is being applied at schools, through the exercises, discussions among students, listening to native speakers, and even attending the course itself.
I think a person could learn through several ways, one of them is to acquire or to pick up.
For example, listening to music, watching movies or news is quite useful, since we are " feeding " our subconscious with lots of information that is stored within our brains unconsciously, most of the time you are not even concentrating ( for example you don't memorize new words while watching a movie, but you are picking them up into your subconscious ) . Practice does its work properly when it's assosiated with the things mentioned above.
A research posted on BBC website, confirms what I've just mentioned ..
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/knowledge-wiki/second-language-acquisition-sla

I hope I made myself clear enough

Kooyeen · Answer

I agree with raindoctor. You can't learn like babies do, and some kind of natural acquisition is only possible when your English is already good enough for you to understand the context. ESL students in school are artificially picking up the language mainly by repetition and explanations, which in my opinion indicates they are learning rather than picking up anything.
The reason why it is impossible to pick up a language naturally like a baby is very simple: you are not a baby. That means you already know a language and you are extremely biased toward everything. That's why there are exercises on minimal pairs: virtually everyone is too biased to even understand what those basic things are all about, which are among the first things a child picks up naturally.

My advice: learn the sounds of English. What you need is basically an accent reduction course.

Andrewthepiper · Answer

I think the only reason  you can't learn like babies do is because you don't have the time...  I believe there's nothing more artificial than learning a language, no matter at what age. I'm also learning English as a second (or third) language. I find phonetics (both  Spanish and English) very useful because it helps you analyze how the many different parts of your mouth, tongue, etc. work when you speak. Certainly, that is something a baby can't learn... so I don't think there's much difference anyway.

Raindoctor · Answer

andrewthepiperI think the only reason you can't learn like babies do is because you don't have the time... I believe there's nothing more artificial than learning a language, no matter at what age. I'm also learning English as a second (or third) language. I find phonetics (both Spanish and English) very useful because it helps you analyze how the many different parts of your mouth, tongue, etc. work when you speak. Certainly, that is something a baby can't learn... so I don't think there's much difference anyway.

No one was denying that one has to invest time in order to learn. What I hear from many ESL researchers is this: after some age, it is very hard to get rid of accent. There are some folks in ESL who say that L1 interference is the hindrance to acquire a native-like accent. I would rather prefer this explanation than your explanation that "people don't have the time", because L1 interference explains many problems that foreigners face.

If we are given two explanations, as history and philosophy of sciences show, pick the explanation that explains/solves many facts/problems.

If we focus on L1 interference, we can find new solutions to get rid of accent. If we focus on time, we will end up peddling nonsense: listen, listen, listen, etc. Yes, listening is crucial; but this listening activity is filtered by L1 phonology.

For example, when indians hear words like thirty, third, three, etc, they end up hearing/producing a dental stop th, instead of a fricative th. Here, L1 interference and how to get rid of such interference plays a rule: this is one reason to get awareness of one's native language. 99 percent of native speakers are unaware of their L1 phonetics and phonology: after all, it is their mother tongue, and hence natural.

Once the knowledge of how to get rid of L1 interference in various scenarios is imparted, listening activity helps. And the time they invest would be worth while.

Mispronouncing words and unstressed them

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