Why is it so difficult to gain native-sounding accent?

Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:27 pm GMT
For foreigners, I observe that many people can write good English (or other languages which are not their native tongue), which can be as good as a native speaker. Yet when it comes to speaking, it is like picking a needle in a hey to find a non-native speaker who can speak with a native-sounding accent. So why is it so difficult to gain native-sounding accent for foreign learners of a language?
Jasper   Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:01 pm GMT
For adult speakers, the brain neurons concerning language development have already grown. Think of this in terms of your physical body, which can grow until you're 20 or so, and you'll understand the analogy.

Most experts think that--except in exceedingly rare instances--adult students are incapable of learning another language all the way to the native level. However, this hypothesis is widely debated....
Jasper   Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:09 pm GMT
Guest, I can give you a personal example.

I know a woman who immigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1990. She had two children---one boy, 15 years old and one girl, who was eight. The boy speaks English with a decided accent; the girl speaks English without a trace of an accent--in fact, she speaks her own native tongue with an American accent. :-)

It is believed that the neurons concerning language development begin maturing at the age of puberty, and the process is complete by the age of 18 or 19.

Once again, I want to warn you that this theory is hotly debated, so take it with a grain of salt.
Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:25 pm GMT
The reason is simple.

Most people just see no need to do so. There is little practical benefit in speaking like a native and it wouldn't justify the hours spent practising.

Accent has little bearing on one's ability to communicate (if you're fluent) and what's the point in hiding one's origins anyway?

Most people have more important things to worryt about.
Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:36 pm GMT
I think the guest above has an alternative compelling insight into the topic!
Russconha   Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:27 am GMT
Our vocal chords are among the first parts of our bodies to completely develop. They are at there most flexible when we are babies and infants when experimenting children make all sorts of sounds when attempting to speak.

As we (generally) only use the sounds in our own languages, the vocal chords do not get used to their full capablilities and lose the ability to make unused sounds.
Xie   Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:22 pm GMT
Or is it true? Haha, I must be still somewhat advantaged for retaining a fairly high pitch. American Accent Training says I'm a tone master, so...

the only problem is I still haven't got time (yes, as one of my million of excuses) to read that book in detail and copy your native accents.
Johnny   Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:25 pm GMT
<<Most people just see no need to do so. There is little practical benefit in speaking like a native and it wouldn't justify the hours spent practising.
Accent has little bearing on one's ability to communicate>>

I'm curious. Does anybody know someone who's got a strong foreign accent (so they don't speak like a native speaker at all), but understands native speakers perfectly anyway, the way native speakers understands each other? (= having native comprehension: no subtitles, fast speech, songs, etc.)

In my opinion, improving your accent is not wasting time at all. The more you speak like a native, the more you understand like a native.
K. T.   Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:51 pm GMT
I recommend series like "Pronounce it Perfectly" for the target language (it's available for English as well).
Dans   Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:02 am GMT
It depends on a number of facts for example like what is your native language (and in some cases - what is your regional accent of that language).

Obviously sounding "native" would entirely depend on your choice of which English accent you wish to adopt.

People find particular accents to adopt easlier than others for example, Some Germanic speakers would find a rhotic English accent eg. GAmE easlier to pick up as oppose to a non rhotic accent like RP(BE).

I am unsure about this example but someone please correct me if I'm wrong - French speakers would find non rhotic English accents easlier to pick up as oppose to rhotic accents.

In my opinion - as long as you are understood by English speakers regardless of your accent, there should be no reason to sound "native".

Anyhow some girls love French sounding guys :D
Mary   Thu Jun 12, 2008 11:40 am GMT
to Johnny
> The more you speak like a native, the more you understand like a native.

You have a point here, but the correlation isn't really strong when it comes to advanced level of learning. As soon as you know how to stress words properly and all the major features of vowels and consonants, you may understand natives perfectly well while even speaking with accent youself.
Guest   Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:33 pm GMT
If you don't live in an Anglophone country to gain native accent is a futile effort. Even more, If I lived in an Anglophone country I would not care about it too much.
Travis   Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:21 pm GMT
>>People find particular accents to adopt easlier than others for example, Some Germanic speakers would find a rhotic English accent eg. GAmE easlier to pick up as oppose to a non rhotic accent like RP(BE).<<

Depends on which Germanic language; modern everyday Standard German and most High German dialects, Low Saxon, East Low German, and Danish (except certain cases in Jutish dialects) are actually non-rhotic (albeit generally with notable differences from the English English model thereof), while most other non-English Germanic languages such as Low Franconian languages (incl. Dutch and Afrikaans) and the rest of North Germanic are largely rhotic.
Guest   Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:42 pm GMT
The girls like my Italian accent so I prefer not to get rid of it.
Dans   Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:19 am GMT
<Depends on which Germanic language; modern everyday Standard German and most High German dialects, Low Saxon, East Low German, and Danish (except certain cases in Jutish dialects) are actually non-rhotic (albeit generally with notable differences from the English English model thereof), while most other non-English Germanic languages such as Low Franconian languages (incl. Dutch and Afrikaans) and the rest of North Germanic are largely rhotic. >

Thanks for your insight - I should be more specific with my earlier comment. I knew about the Rhotic Germanic languages like Dutch and Afrikaans.

I thought the Northern Germanic language group was non rhotic.