Accents are a wonderful thing—they give us clues into people’s heritage and diverse backgrounds, but for some speakers, an accent may be heavy enough to make it hard to communicate effectively.
Why Would Someone Want to Reduce Their Accent?
An accent occurs when a speaker’s native language interacts with how they speak their second language. We’ve all known speakers who spoke a second language very fluently and with almost native-speaker-like proficiency, and others who spoke the second language with a strong accent that made them harder to understand in the second language. Here are some of the reasons this occurs.
Less experience with the second language may mean a heavier accent.
Naturally, the more experience a speaker has with the second language, the more proficient they become and the less they may be impacted by difficulty with the vocabulary or grammar or the second language. This means they will tend to speak the second language without hesitation or pauses because they’re not struggling to translate or formulate their thoughts in the second language. This improved proficiency often makes the speaker easier to understand. The message is not interrupted by constant pauses or revisions.
While an 'accent' usually refers to speech sound production, it’s important to remember that improving your proficiency in a second language—expanding your vocabulary, increasing your ease of using the language and learning more rules of grammar—will make you appear to have less of an 'accent' as well.
Learning a Second Language Later May Make You More Accent-Prone
Age of learning a language and experience with the language often go hand in hand. The earlier a speaker learns a language, the less likely they are to have an accent years later. This is why young children who learn a second language often grow up speaking that language with no accent.
Our speech and language systems are still developing up until around 8 years of age. If we learn to speak a second language as a child, it becomes much more effortless to internalize the sound system and rules of that second language. As a result, kids who get exposure early to a second language may be less likely to need accent reduction help as an adult.
Continued Exposure to the Native Language Versus Immersion in the Second Language
Another factor that might influence our learning of a second language has to do with how much of the time we’re relying on our native language. Highly immersive language experiences allow us to become more comfortable speaking a second language.
Children who are adopted internationally, for example, are often described as having 'second-first language acquisition.' In this example, the speaker often completely leaves the environment of the native language to speak only the second language in their adoptive home. As a result, they lose their ability to speak the first language (depending on the age of adoption) and become native-speaker-like in their ability to speak the second language.
Your Accent Might Be Stronger Depending on How Different Your Native Language Is from English
Languages consist of many sets of rules—how sounds can be combined to make words, how words can be combined to make sentences, how stress patterns get assigned to words and sentences, what sounds connote what meaning—and all these rules can vary from language to language.
However, some languages have a good degree of overlap, say for example French and Italian, which makes it easier for speakers of one language to learn the other. It also means that it may be easier for speakers of similar languages to master the sound system and speak without an accent.
Other languages may be more different, and as a result, it may be harder for second-language learners to master the new language without an accent.
Why is it So Hard to Change an Accent?
This underlying impact of the native language sound system, and the degree to which the second language sound system may be 'foreign' results in a lot of challenges when trying to learn a new language!
We all would love to speak a second language effortlessly with a native-like accent, but unfortunately this is much easier said than done! Why is accent reduction so hard?
Our native language works too well--and sets us up for accents.
Changing an Accent Requires a Lot of Practice—And It’s Hard to Find the Time
It’s frustrating that you can be completely competent in reading and writing in a new language—our vocabulary and grammatical skills may be excellent—but that impact of our native phonology still causes us to speak with an accent.
And, depending on the degree of the accent, it may interfere with spoken communication in the second language.
How do Accent Reduction Services Work?
Accent reduction services typically address the areas described above—helping with English proficiency as needed, and providing direct coaching regarding the impact of the native phonology on English sounds.
Services can be provided by an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, an accent modification coach, or a speech-language pathologist.
Why Choose Verboso for Accent Reduction?
At Verboso, we offer accent modification services as part of our commitment to helping individuals communicate clearly.
Our teletherapy appointments are convenient and can be accessed from the comfort of your own home.
Conclusion
All of our clients start with a free screening, so head over to our therapy services page and sign up today!