Twisted experiment with my native language, your opinion?

Jenny   Wed Oct 29, 2008 6:06 pm GMT
Hello,

I've been learning English for quite some time now, and I believe my English is okay.
I read somewhere that you could improve your English/American accent by mimicking non-native speakers of your language speaking your language, because then you'd notice what makes *you* sound non-native.
Since I'm Italian, I'd have to listen to English people speaking Italian.
That's what I've started to do yesterday.
Moreover, I'm interested in accents and accent modification/reduction and I've got a few questions:
Am I going to sound English in Italian if I listen to English accents in Italian for a long time - I mean, is that something that could happen, coupled to an immersion environment in English?
Has any of you here "earned" a non-native accent in their language just because they spoke their L2 too much?
Thanks!
Caspian   Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:20 pm GMT
You won't lose your native language, don't worry. It's very possible that this method might work for you.

Here, I've recorded myself reading a clip in Italian to contribute towards your experiment!

http://www.quickfilepost.com/download.do?get=23241af5d85c2cd693e5119f08b4bd65
Skippy   Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:27 pm GMT
What I do when I try and speak German (poorly), the first thing I do is think what a German accent sounds like in English and then speak like that but in German.

Of course, normally I just have a thick American accent.
Johnny   Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:24 pm GMT
<<I read somewhere that you could improve your English/American accent by mimicking non-native speakers of your language speaking your language...>>

Not really. If you can sound like an American in Italian, it doesn't necessarily mean you can also sound good when talking in English. The other way around makes more sense though: if you can sound pretty good when speaking English, you can easily try to sound foreign while speaking Italian if you want, because in that case you would know how American speakers tend to move their mouths. Don't focus on Americans speaking Italian: their Italian accent might vary a lot and have peculiar features that will only confuse you. I suggest you just focus on Americans speaking American English.

I can tell you that because I am Italian too. The only thing I could suggest to improve your accent (and lose that annoying Italian accent everyone has here... It is a house... Eat ease eh houz! :P ) is an accent reduction course. I only read American Accent Training, it seems the best available. Anyway, no course is perfect (some stuff is always missing, some stuff is questionable), and you will have to add lots of practice on top of that (such as listening to a lot of English).

<<Am I going to sound English in Italian if I listen to English accents in Italian for a long time - I mean, is that something that could happen, coupled to an immersion environment in English?>>

Yes! Definitely! If I have been using English enough for some reason (listening, thinking, writing, whatever), it's not unlikely that some short English words slip out of my mouth unconsciously, or I forget how to say something in Italian while I remember the English term at once, or I use words and structures that don't exist in Italian but are very closely related to the English equivalents.
Good luck
Johnny   Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:43 pm GMT
Caspian, LOL! I just listened to your clip, hope you don't mind if I lol a bit! :D

That sounded like a speech synthesizer to me, some words were mispronounced, but it was perfectly understandable. :)
Anyway, I'd like to repeat that learners are not going to learn much by listening to Americans their native language. In that clip, I think the only thing that is would be worth pointing out is t-aspiration in "tutti", which is not present in Italian. It's best to listen to the real language, where all the features and vowels are present, and the intonation is not artificial.
Caspian   Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:52 pm GMT
Well, at least I'm an understandable speech-synthesizer - and I assure you that was me!

I've learnt Italian for less than a year, so I don't claim to speak it well.