Reader comments on "Why you should study English pronunciation"
My motivation for learning pronunciation
For me, pronunciation is one of the most important things in learning English. I really want to be able to speak like a native speaker. I know it is hard but it is possible to be a near-native....
First of all, I have been trying to learn proper pronunciation at all moments in my learning process of English. I started learning it when entering junior high school in Japan. I was 12 years old. I was interested in foreign things so I was very excited about starting English at school. My teacher was good at teaching pronunciation, which is fairly rare because most of Japanese English teachers can never pronounce words correctly. Anyway, she taught me how to pronounce the alphabet. Basically I was lucky to have her as my first English teacher. In addition, my passion for learning English played a key role in learning it. I always tried to imitate English sounds by repeating after listening tape. Frankly, I have learned pronunciation by teaching myself with tapes since there were almost no teachers who could teach pronunciation. I don't know why I was so interested in English, but I was so eager to be able to speak another language than Japanese. Also, I love how English sounds!!! I just love it!!
Well, about the role of pronunciation in building personal relationships, I don't know exactly... You might want me to say something like "I don't want to talk to someone whose English is so bad.", I wouldn't say so. I have this friend who speaks English with a strong accent that requires some concentration to understand, I'm not willing to talk to him. But I don't know if that is because I don't like his personality or I just don't feel like listening to him. Maybe both. Basically, I love to talk to international students because I know that I don't have to worry about my poor English when I am talking to non-native people. I love to talk to native speakers because I just love listening to perfect pronunciation!
OK, let me answer your question in short. What is my motivation for learning English pronunciation? I just love it!!! I want to be able to speak it!!! I love the way my mouth and tongue move when speaking it! (this is a weird reason, though).
Pronunciation is like singing
I have read your story on Antimoon and one thing came to my mind. Pronunciation is like singing. Imagine a person who sings, but one cannot listen to that person with pleasure. He or she is losing the rhythm, sometimes sounding more like a wolf than a human being. I could describe this as singing out of tune.
So I think that we can liken a person who doesn't sing well to somebody who can't pronounce words properly. Sometimes people may say that they don't have to learn pronunciation because they don't realize how important it is. If only they tried to imagine how unpleasant it is to be listening to a person who is singing really bad then they would know what it is like to be listening to a person with terrible pronunciation.
I like your analogy between bad pronunciation and singing out of tune. Everybody can try to imagine a person who is singing unpleasantly. But not everybody believes that bad pronunciation can be unpleasant for other people. Your analogy may help some learners to understand the importance of good pronunciation.
Our pronunciation is part of our image — how we present ourselves to the world. When we talk with other people in English, we present ourselves to them through our pronunciation. I think that it is possible that some people can be unpleasant companions because of their bad pronunciation. And I think that sometimes a person can be a very pleasant companion because of their good pronunciation.
The pronunciation of learners who live in an English-speaking country
You are right that foreigners who live in the USA usually develop an understandable way of speaking. It is simply a matter of necessity — you have to be able to communicate in stores, banks, etc. But when you take English classes in Poland or Iran it is easy to develop an accent which is understandable only to other Polish or Iranian students.
In short, you always develop an accent which is understandable to people around you. If they are Americans, it's okay. If they are Poles or Iranians, it's worse. Believe me, it is not easy to learn to speak with an accent that is understandable to native speakers if you do not live in an English-speaking country.
As you have pointed out, even the accent used by foreigners in America is often "weird" and natives are not "comfortable with them" (which is well said, by the way). In our article about good pronunciation we call this "Level 2 of pronunciation skill" (understandable but unpleasant English).
Not everyone will want to move to "Level 3" (understandable and pleasant English). For many people, communication will be enough. But we want to motivate people to take the next step. We think many people would go ahead if they only knew what to do.