Is 'losing your accent' an important goal of learning a second language?

Question

Would you consider a person truly fluent if he still carried the accent of his mother tongue?

Answer 1

This is an interesting question.

Linguists, especially those who study second language acquisition (SLA), are aware that most people who learn a new language after about the age of 15 always speak with an "accent". It is quite rare, in fact, to meet a person who doesn't.

Whether or not this means that the person is not a fabulous user of the language is somewhat beside the point. I am acquainted with a German woman who now teaches in English at an American university, for example. As far as the grammar, pragmatics, and many other characteristics of her English, she uses English very very well. In some cases, her ability to use English in an academic setting is superior to that of many native speakers. However, she speaks English with an accent. Does that mean that she is not able to use English to communicate?

Another complicating factor is that our perception and even comprehension of language is confounded by our perception of the person who uses that language. A classic study that demonstrates this was performed by a researcher named Rubin. In that study, students listened to a lecture. They were shown different pictures and told that the person in the picture gave the lecture. Students who were shown a picture of an Asian male did not perform as well on a comprehension test as students who were shown a picture of a Caucasian male, even though they listened to the same tape recording. This type of effect, where our comprehension is affected by our perception of the person as well as that person's language, can affect interactions with non-native speakers as well.

Because so few non-native speakers are able to speak with an accent that sounds native-like, language teachers in general don't make it a goal to train their students to sound like native speakers. However, there are some features of accents that can be changed to make them more understandable. Native speakers often listen to the length of the vowel, for example, to tell the difference between the words "beat" and "bead". So non-native speakers can be trained to make the vowel in "bead" longer than the one in "beat", which will help native speakers to understand them better. However, one thing that frustrates me as an ESL teacher is the inequality of this; I teach the non-native speakers how to make their accents more understandable, but I never teach the native speakers how to understand accents better. I find that to be quite unfair. Who says the native speaker is the one that should be catered to?

In answer to your question, I know some people that I consider very "fluent" in English despite the fact that they speak with accents. However, native speakers of English certainly do seem to react when they sense that someone doesn't speak English exactly like they expect. How much of this is language-related and how much of this is (gulp) prejudice is up for grabs.

Even having written that, I am aware of the irony that I complain about the inequality and unfairness that's built into teaching ESL pronunciation, but I still continue to teach it. In addition, my ability to speak with a very native-like accent is something that I take some pride in as a non-native speaker of Spanish, for example. So although I am aware of these issues, I am still contributing to them.

Also, as a linguistic researcher, I am increasingly interested in the problem of perception. There is a lot of evidence coming out in research studies today that the reason people speak English with an accent may not be that their English sound system is influenced by their native language, but that their perception of English as they hear it is. In other words, because they hear things through the sound system of their native language, English might sound more like their native language to them than it does to English speakers. Therefore, when they hear and store new vocabulary words, they are already "accented" because that's the way they heard them on the way into their minds. When people speak with an accent, then, it could be that they are simply faithfully reproducing the already accented forms that they have in their mental knowledge of English. If future studies provide further evidence that perception is truly making a difference in accent, perception training may become a stronger part of language teaching in the future.

Answer 2

Losing your accent is definately not a goal when learning a second language. I would still consider one truly fluent even though they are to carry their accent from a first language. I prefer one to have an accent when speaking a second language.
I find people who try to abolish the existance of their mother tongue to sound phony, or trying too hard to impress.

Answer 3

Correct grammar & vocab. is much more important.
You can be fluent & easily understood in a second language with an accent, as long as you get the word & sentence stress correct.
Think of Arnie Schwartenegger's I'LL BE BOCK" or Greta Garbo's " I VANT TO BE ALONE'

Maybe avoid words that you may pronouce as another word e.g. My French friend/study partner never uses the words 'sheet or sheets' to her children because of her accent. I also encourage Japanese speakers to use 'applaud' instead of 'clap', especially if they are very fluent 'cos the listener might not take their accent into consideration.
In some circumstances a consistently strong accent can be better understood as the listener automatically compensates or tunes in to your speech.

Answer 4

It seems to depend what your second language is. I think English speakers accept as fully fluent people with foreign accents (or else they disparage people with other NATIVE accents), but I think French speakers typically don't. In the case of tonal languages, it may be truly hard to understand someone whose accent is different, because it is too close to the difference in word meaning. I personally have given up on improving my accent in French (which I do consider myself fluent (if not flawless) in) because I relate it to my identity.

Answer 5

Yes, I know people who have lived in my country almost their whole live, they know every word, every phrase, every expression - but when you hear them talking, everybody will assume that they are foreigners (because of their accent).

I can also say that - without stereotyping - people of some nations tend to have less accent than others.
I will give you an example: Serbians and Croatians speak (almost) the same language. I know many Serbians and Croatians as well. Most of the Croatians keep carrying their accents - Serbians don´t (in general). Í don´t know any reasons for this phenomenon ...

Answer 6

flency is a matter of being able to speak,read,write, and translate in another tongue. As for "losing your accent" it would be a good idea to try, but I don't think its going to change the fact of your fluency. I mean think about it(no offense to anyone), but if a russian spoke spanish in his native accent wouldn't that sound just a bit weird, or even a german accent speaking spanish. Now if its one person trying to learn english and they haven't lost their accent i wouldnt matter too much since we're "the melting pot"

Answer 7

Loosing your accent isn't necessary to be fluent in a second language. Your accent is part of who you are & you should be proud of it. You can make yourself perfectly understood in a second language without having to loose your accent - which I think would be extremely difficult for many people to do.

Answer 8

Yes. From personal experience, I recall my dad, from Germany speaking, reading, and writing Spanish. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He would say Puerto Rican expressions such as "Ay Bendito" with the typical Puerto Rican inflection. People loved the way he spoke and didn't mind his accent AT ALL. On the contrary. They listened to him more, and showed a lot of respect because he set the example in speaking correctly. He loved Don Quixote and Gabriel García Márquez's works. He read almost all of his collection IN SPANISH. Pronunciation wise, it was not the perfect Spanish. But again, the importance of learning the second language is to understand them and for you to be understood. The rest is history.

Answer 9

no, "losing your accent" definitely is not an important goal of learning a second language... you can have the accent of your mother tongue and be perfectly understandable.

Answer 10

It depends on how their accent effects their speech. Some people know all the words and grammar, but you still can't understand a word they say.
I can consider someone fluent if they have an accent.