Accents are more than just a way of speaking. They are a connection to culture.
By taking the time to learn not only what people say, but how they say it, you will expand your experience of a place and its people immeasurably. An accent can carry the weight of a people and its story attached, which becomes of symbol of you who are and why you speak the way you do.
It is also something that, as a school, we know many students understand and that’s why they worry about it. Everybody knows a traveler, immigrant or has been abroad and heard someone trying to use our language with a “funny accent”. Many times, this is seen as sweet, or cute, as it is a big effort for a foreign to speak our native tongue. But in the back of our heads there is the fear of being mocked, or even not being entirely understood.
Accents can separate a people, more than distance. Common examples, in the English languages are the American, British, Scottish, Irish, Australian and new Zealander accents, among others, which can be hard to understand, even for native speakers. Sometimes vocabulary can differ and slangs make them definitely worlds apart. So, we have the same language but the differences in accentuation, word stress, pronunciation, can make a whole difference.
There is a common English language, if we can say that, also known as the Queen's English or Oxford English, which is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard for British English. This is called Received Pronunciation (often referred to as RP). It is the English normally heard in movies, news, tv shows or even the English taught around the world. For over a century there has been an argument over such issues as the definition of RP, whether it is geographically neutral, how many speakers are there, whether sub-varieties exist, how appropriate a choice it is as a standard and how the accent has changed over time. RP is an accent, so the study of RP is concerned only with matters of pronunciation; other areas relevant to the study of language standards such as vocabulary, grammar and style are not considered.
But, if you’re interested in having a native’s accent, here are some tips to improve the way you speak:
Try IPA
Get familiar with The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), because it can get you off to a good start. Each letter in the IPA represents not only a sound but a method of producing that sound and if you think about it, this is how we started learning (at school) our native language.
Be a shadow
As children we all learned to speak our native tongue by listening to others around us and copying the sounds they made. Shadowing involves finding an auditory resource in your target language
go to YouTube and search the region of the accent I want to learn and I listen to interviews with people to hear their authentic, natural accents
Repeat the words aloud. If possible, read the transcription of the text
Watch and learn
Immersing yourself in a language is a sure-fire strategy for absorbing its accent and rhythm. When you have an opportunity to chat with a native speaker, avoid listening passively. Instead, study the way her mouth moves, the way she strings syllables together, her gestures and facial expressions.
Mimic
The only true way to learn a new accent is by speaking with that accent. Although this seems like a simple tip, there is much more to speaking in an accent than simply reading a few lines
Try mimicking some of the native speakers you’ve encountered in person or through online tutoring sites. Wave your hands in the air, add in tiny colloquial filler words, and adjust your facial expressions.
Learn how to make the sounds you’re hearing with your mouth, notice the rhythms and immerse yourself in the language, through music, videos, news or social media. The more we practice the better we can get.
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