Re: Pronunciation (was Chinese learning English)

--- In TEFLChina-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Merton Bland 
<mert_bland@...> wrote:
>
> May I suggest that our aim with pronunciation is not
> to teach RP, 'Stryne, Midwestern, or whatever our own
> regionism is (even if we acknowledge other accents),
> but the student's own accent AS LONG AS THAT
> PRONUNCIATION IS COMPREHENSIBLE TO THE GREATEST NUMBER
> OF PERSONS NOT SHARING THAT ACCENT.
> 
> Mert
> 
Since you are acting as a model in front of the class you are bound to
some extent to be teaching your own accent. 

Comprehensibility is dependent on familiarity and since there is no
common International English accent with features from Chinese
English, Japanese English, Spanish English, French English etc., the
most common English accents heard worldwide are those of the major
Englishes, UK, US etc. Spanish speakers as a group are probably more
familiar with these Englishes than they are with Chinese or Japanese
Englishes. Chinese speakers of English as a whole will be more
familiar with the major Englishes than they will be with Japanese
English and even if they are likely to come into contact with Japanese
speakers of English should we be teaching them to speak English with a
Japanese accent?

A second question is when you talk of being "comprehensible to the
greatest number of people not sharing that accent" do you mean people
worldwide or people the learner is likely to to be using the English
with in the immediate to mid-term future? Most NS can adjust their
accents to their listeners but most learners do not have this luxury
unless English is a second language in their country (eg. India,
Singapore). If you want to be understood worldwide, the nearer your
accent is to one of the major Englishes, the better you will be
understood. If you only need English to communicate with colleagues in
your German joint venture and you think you have a job there for life,
you might learn German English but you'd be better off learning German.

Dick Tibbetts








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