L&S 4 brought up a very interesting question
Is intelligibility or native like ability the goal to strive for in pronunciation?
When I study an L2 my personal goal is intelligibility.
I think speaking like a native is more easily picked up by young children and pre teens. I believe the evidence bears this out. I am curious to know more about why this is.
At 55 If I am understood I am happy.
As a teacher I think knowing students goals will help us decide what activities deserve most attention.
----------------------------------------------------
I have been thinking a lot about how to grade writing in a way that uses constructive criticism to promote improvement. I spoke with a friend of mine that teaches high school writing. I will attemp to scan in the rubric she shared with me, and would be very interested to see others.
When thinking about writing mistakes, I found that the Korean high school ( summer program 2005) students' mistakes were in some ways similar to the type of mistakes that native English speakers their own age made as well as some unique mistakes with verb forms.
---------------------------------
3 comments:
I agree that native pronunciation is more easily achieved. However, i feel that the closer a person becomes to native pronunciation the easier it is in hearing words and actually understanding them. I feel this way because i took a phonetics class and it extremely helped my recognition of certain words and how i still speak. Also practicing phonetics doesn't have to ruin learning a language. It is intertwined with learning a langauge and songs and dialogues can be used to be a part of understanding an L2.
I too think that intelligibility is key, especially since accent/pronunciation is closely related to a person's identity.
I think you are right. This is not important to have native-like pronunciation. To understand and be understood is crucial.
Post a Comment