What about pronunciation

I had a question on pronunciation in a comment to the previous post. Here is what I said with a few more comments.

I do not think it is important to focus on pronunciation until you have done a lot of listening. I mean hundred of hours, often listening repeatedly. If you start pronouncing after your brain is really used to the language, you will do better. You cannot pronounce what you cannot hear.

Much of the effort to get early level learners to learn pronunciation is a waste of time in my view, and possible harmful. Listen to American, Canadian, British or whatever English you want. When you are ready to work on pronunciation choose one form of the language, and one voice that you like and listen over and over, imitating. Till then don't worry about it.

People worry too much about pronunciation. It is far more important to speak well, using natural phrasing and using words correctly. I do not mean getting the odd article or preposition wrong in English, or getting the odd gender, or agreement, or case wrong in some languages. I mean having words and phrases to use. That is what matters.

To work on pronunciation, first listen a lot. Listen to someone you like listening to. Listen over and over to imitate the rhythm of the person you want to sound like. Or  listen to many people, and start pronouncing to yourself, imitating. You will get as close to that model as you are meant to. After that don't worry about it.

I have found that detailed instructions on where to put your tongue and how to open your mouth are usually not that helpful. Equally unhelpful is the international phonetic alphabet (IPA), which I have never learned. Either the sound exists in my language, in which case I pick it up fairly quickly, or the sound does not  exist in my language, in which case it will take longer. In either case the strange symbols of the IPA are, to me at least, unnecessary.

Comments

[Eduardo Gomes Junior]

Dear Steve,

Thanks very much for reply my question.

"More and more people in China are seeking tongue operations to improve their English.
Plastic surgeons say that with minor surgery, patients can improve their pronunciation almost overnight..."

Is it true that people in China have more difficulties, than other people from other countries in english pronunciation? Is it really necessary tongue operation to improve their English?

Or is it a waste of money?

Ready more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2161780.stm

Best regards,

Eduardo Gomes Junior

[Steve Kaufmann]

The difficulty in pronunciation comes from many factors, including psychological ones. There are no second generation Chinese in North America or Brazil for that matter who are having operations on their tongues. This shows how gullible certain people are.

[Eduardo Gomes Junior]

Ok

I agree with you!

Thank very much,

Eduardo Gomes Jr

[Naomie.]

I also agree with you concerning the IPA. One can get lost by trying to learn it.
Thanks.

[Gabriela]

Hi, Steve! I have just finished reading of your article on pronunciation. I would like to tell you something about my personal experience in learning (and teaching) it. I agree with majority of your statements, but I have slightly different opinion concerning IPA. Mainly at those students who are not able to catch the right pronunciation just from listening. To such students IPA can help a lot. The problem is, when you pronounce some word in a quite different way than the native speakers do, then you cannot recognize it in their fluent speach at all, because your brain has for such a word its special pattern! I have one friend who has only 20% of hearing - and for her the only way how to master the right pronunciation of the English words is IPA. Luckilly we have here one textbook (title of it is: "English for everlasting beginners"), which uses the international transcription in all their lectures. You can find transcription under each word of the sentence. And she is now able to pronounce English sentences quite well. I think that English represents in fact two languages (one spoken and one written) and our aim is to get both these forms into our brain... So it´s my opinion to this special subject. Best retards from Gabriela

[Gabriela]

Steve, as I can see now , instead of regards I wrote the word retards! I don´t know how to change this misprint...
Sorry! Gabriela

[Steve Kaufmann]

That's is OK Gabriela. Not to worry and thanks for the comment.

I will be counting on you when I start to study Czech.

By the way are you going to the Interlingua conference in Prague Nov 7-8?

[Katie]

Will Czech be in LingQ soon?!

[Jeff]

I definitely agree with the comments about the IPA. It makes things more complicated for me. I would much rather just be mesmerized in listening to native Portuguese speakers on audio tapes (in order to learn pronunciation better). While pronunciation is not quite as important as learning how to use the language with real words, phrases, and expressions, I know a couple of people that focus specifically on how to pronounce better in their target language, as they want to sound more like a native speaker. I prefer learning new words/phrases/expressions and then hearing them pronounced by a native speaker over and over again until they stick, and until I feel confident articulating them.