Education, Culture, Biology, and Attitudes to the Foreign Accent

Conventional attitudes and lack of information about the foreign accent can affect the culture and effectiveness of education. American colleges include large numbers of international and immigrant students who are likely to speak English with a foreign accent. These students often wrestle with negative attitudes to their non-native pronunciation, believing that it reflects upon their academic ability and their commitment to learning English. When insecurities about pronunciation inhibit students from speaking in class, they cannot become fully involved in the educational process. Non-native pronunciation of English may also influence students to underestimate their own academic potential. Using the orientation and methodology of Action Research, an intervention project was undertaken in a linguistics class in Bilingualism, with the purpose of encouraging students to develop a more realistic perspective on non-native speech. Students studied relevant facts and research information from linguistics, biology, and history. They learned how the foreign accent results from the integration of many first (native) language components into second language speech, and came to appreciate how normal language acquisition, in preparing the brain for the sounds of the native language, influences the pronunciation of new languages. This curricular intervention has provided students with a better understanding of the foreign accent and helped immigrant students to gain more confidence in their communicative skills