It’s About Pronunciation Not Accent: Reflections from Colombia

Ezana Habte-Gabr

Ezana Habte-Gabr presently teaches English at Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogota. He has taught CLIL courses in Geography and the other Social Sciences at schools and universites. E-mail: ezana.habte-gabr@uexternado.edu.co, or habterod@rocketmail.com

Students who study English as a foreign language often believe that a native accent is essential in being considered proficient. Insecurity and unwillingness to practice English with students who acquired much of the language in an English speaking country are among some of the reactions teachers notice in the classroom. Students who learn English as a foreign language are unaware that most people who speak proficiently and write in English are actually non-native speakers for whom English is a second or even third language. If we understand the global context of speaking and using the English language, we will realize that one should place emphasis on acquiring decent pronunciation as opposed to a native accent.

Its always interesting to show students videos of famous people who have written and used English the areas of science, economics and the humanities who are or were from countries were English is not a first language. Students often assume famous people such as Economics laureate Amartya Sen, Peter Drucker, among many others, actually speak or spoke the language with a native accent. In much of the Latin American context, this misconception exists because most people are exposed to English in a classroom and television, where they largely listen to native accents. The majority of people who study English in Colombia have about a couple of lessons a week through short grammar classes, making them unexposed to the fact that the language is largely spoken around the world in foreign accents.

What is an accent? The online Oxford dictionary defines an accent as, “A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class” . Country, area and class are aspects which define a person’s culture and background. Therefore, should someone speak with a “British” or “American” accent, their background or childhood can automatically be associated with these places. Would a Colombian studying English learn the language because they want to change their identity? Those who are not originally from English speaking countries and have acquired these native accents have done so because they moved there at a young age and use the language in their daily lives as opposed to making an intentional effort to acquire the accent. Indeed this is the case for us English teachers who speak or are learning Spanish in Colombia. Whenever we travel to other Latin America countries, it’s quite evident that we acquired the language in Colombia, however as we have been learning the language as adults our accents remain foreign as one is completely socialized in a country, area or social class at a much younger age.

In addition to being a lingua franca, a language spoken across different regions of the world, English is distinct from any other language because most speakers of the language are actually non-natives. This also means that most professionals who use the language speak it with a non-native accent. If you look at the “Englishes” on a spell checker, you will notice that there are versions of the language from countries in every continent, suggesting that the language can be associated with different places as these countries use English as a second language, largely in government and education. Many countries in Africa and Asia, for instance, use English in secondary and higher education. Colombian scientists such as Patarroyo who use English in writing and speaking about their findings are at home in the world of science as most of their colleagues are non-native speakers. Being aware of this context is important for English learners in Colombia in order to realize that they need not focus on acquiring an accent, but rather focus on correct pronunciation. Decent pronunciation guarantees fluency and comprehension of the language and this is acquired with mastering the language as is the case of 80% of its speakers who are non-natives and not through acquiring a native accent.

The only time accents are learned is through improvisation of actors, who do so in order to fulfill a specific task for a certain period of time. Students should really place emphasis on correct pronunciation which can be learned from listening to both native and non-native teachers and through phonetically devised exercises in order to overcome the influence of one’s first language on pronunciation. A learner is better off correcting mispronunciation which originates from their first language instead of changing their accent as this is what facilitates clarity in speaking and comprehension. A person from the Horn of Africa would benefit from practicing the “TH” because they would be talking about” Zinc” and not “think”. Likewise a learner in Latin America can learn to pronounce “beach” and “sheet” without changing their accent!

References

www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/accent (retrieved May 15, 2015)

Jenkins notes that 80% of speakers are non-natives. See http://ihjournal.com/elt-and-the-native-speaker-ideal-some-food-for-thought (retrived May 15, 2015)

Please check the Teaching Pronunciation at Pilgrims website.