Understanding accents and their role in language learning

A woman on her phone smiling outdoors in a city
Reading time: 4 minutes

Accents are a fascinating aspect of language that can reveal a lot about a person's background and experiences. For language learners, accents often become a central focus, sometimes to the detriment of more important language skills. In this post, we’ll explore what accents are, why people have them, and why intelligibility is more important than mastering an accent.

Ways to improve your language intelligibility
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree app can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

What are accents?

An accent is a distinctive way of pronouncing words that is characteristic of a particular region, social group, or native language. It involves variations in phonetics, intonation and rhythm. For example, a person from London might speak English with a different accent compared to someone from Edinburgh.

Accents are natural and inevitable; everyone has one. They are influenced by various factors, including geography, culture and exposure to other languages. When you learn a new language, your native language influences your pronunciation.

Depending on your accent, you may pronounce some sounds in certain ways that aren't reflected in another language, or perhaps certain sounds or words don't even exist in your first language. For example in Japanese, there is no /L/ sound, so a native Japanese speaker might struggle to pronounce the word "love" with an accurate /L/ sound.

Another example is . They often use clicks in their language, which is not found in many other languages, making it difficult for non-native speakers to imitate and learn. For anyone who has to make a sound they aren't used to, it can be initially difficult as the mouth has to move in a way unfamiliar to the speaker.

There is even a discussion on whether physical aspects affect accent, such as the shape of your teeth, tongue and oral posture (the way your teeth rest together and tongue sits in your mouth). There are also many other physical factors that are under debate on whether they impact voice/accent.

Why do people have accents?

People have accents for several reasons:

  1. Geographical influence: The region where a person grows up significantly affects their accent. Even within the same country, accents can vary widely from one city or town to another.
  2. Cultural factors: Cultural background plays a role in shaping how people speak. For instance, social norms and traditions can influence speech patterns and pronunciations.
  3. Native language impact: Your first language has a profound impact on how you pronounce sounds in a new language. Certain sounds may not exist in your native language, making them harder to replicate accurately in another.
  4. Exposure and practice: The amount of exposure and practice you have with a new language can affect your accent. Regular interaction with fluent speakers can help you adopt more native-like pronunciations. If you spend a lot of time around foreign media you may start picking up accents from there.

Have you ever spoken to someone and you feel like they're mimicking your accent? or that you're subconsciously mimicking theirs? This can be due to the ', when a person adopts and mimics things such as gestures or voice of the person they are in conversation with. This is seen as a subconscious way to build rapport and connection with others.

Why do accents matter?

Accents matter because they are a core part of our identity and how we relate to the world. For language learners, accents can be a source of pride or frustration.

However, it’s essential to understand that having a foreign accent is perfectly normal and not a barrier to effective communication. In fact, accents add diversity and richness to language and should be embraced.

Why intelligibility is more important than mastering an accent

In the context of language learning, intelligibility—being understood by others—should be your primary goal rather than eliminating or changing your accent. Here’s why:

  1. Effective communication: The main aim of learning a new language is to communicate effectively. If others can understand you clearly, your accent becomes less important.
  2. Reduced pressure: Focusing on intelligibility rather than perfecting an accent reduces stress and makes the learning process more enjoyable. You can concentrate on expanding your vocabulary and improving grammar instead.
  3. Cultural acceptance: Many native speakers are accustomed to hearing various accents and can understand them without difficulty. They appreciate the effort you put into learning their language, regardless of your accent.
  4. Retaining your identity: Trying to eliminate your accent may mean losing part of your cultural identity. Embracing your accent shows others that you are proud of where you come from and can open the door to meaningful conversations about culture and diversity.
  5. Practical progress: Concentrating on intelligibility allows you to make practical progress in real-world situations, such as ordering food, asking for directions, or participating in conversations.

Tips for improving intelligibility

  • Listen and mimic: Spend time listening to fluent speakers and try to mimic their intonation and rhythm.
  • Practice pronunciation: Focus on pronouncing key sounds correctly.
  • Record yourself: Recording your speech and comparing it to fluent speakers can help you identify areas for improvement.
  • Seek Feedback: Don’t hesitate to ask fluent speakers for feedback on your pronunciation and clarity. It's the best way to determine your intelligibility.

Be proud of your accent

Accents are a natural part of language and identity. While they can influence how we are perceived, they should not be a major concern for language learners. Instead, focus on being understood and enjoying the process of learning a new language. Remember, an accent is not a flaw; it’s your blueprint.

Read out blog posts 'What does it mean to be fluent in English?' and 'Understanding dialects in the English language'

More blogs from app

  • A teacher stood in front of his class with students looking at him,

    Designing new learning experiences for your English language learners

    By Ehsan Gorji
    Reading time: 6 minutes

    Ehsan Gorji is an Iranian teacher and educator with 18 years of experience in English language education. He collaborates on various ELT projects with different language schools around the globe. Ehsan currently owns and manages THink™ Languages and also works as a TED-Ed Student Talks Leader.

    Learning has always been an interesting topic to explore in the language education industry. Every week, a lot of webinars are delivered on how learning another language could be more successful, lots of articles are written on how to maximize learning, and many discussions take place between teaching colleagues about how they could surprise their language learners with more amazing tasks and games. In our lesson plans, too, we put learners into focus and try to write learning objectives that will benefit them in the real world.

  • A young child smiling in a classroom with a crayon in his hand.

    Young learners of English deserve more

    By Ehsan Gorji
    Reading time: 3 minutes

    Imagine a class of English language students aged 8– 9 taught by a dynamic teacher they love. The young learners sit together for two hours, three times a week to learn English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The vibe they bring with them to the class, plus the dynamic teacher and the creativity she develops in her lesson plans, is fantastic.

    I have been observing trends in teaching EFL to young learners, and it is clear to me that school directors, syllabus generators, teachers, parents and learners are all satisfied with this image… “Hooray! Young learners sit together for two hours, three times a week to learn English as a Foreign Language. And the teacher is able to manage the class. Bravo!” But is it enough?

    What causes the lack of focus?

    It all begins with the coursebooks. If you take a coursebook for young learners and thumb through the ‘Scope and Sequence’ pages, you’ll see holistic definitions of language input in each unit. The school authorities then design a course based on the coursebook, and the snowball effect happens, whereby they design a course without specific details on what exactly to focus on.

    It is the teacher’s turn now. The creative and dynamic teacher provides an excellent classroom experience through which young learners can learn English together. She also assigns a piece of homework: write an email to a friend and tell her about your last holiday.

    When the teacher reviews the emails, she smiles as she finds many uses of the simple past tense—both in affirmative and negative forms. She then drafts an email thanking everyone and praising them generously. She includes a link to a PDF of other exercises to reinforce the grammar (the next day in class, they will review the completed handouts).

    This hardworking teacher tries to blend her style with digital literacy and applies creativity along the way. Everything seems perfect in her class, and she regularly receives emails from parents thanking her. Nevertheless, some questions remain: What was the task? What was the learning outcome? Which learning objective should have been tracked?

    Let’s reconsider the task – this time with our critic’s hat on – and analyze what has been taking place in this class. It is very nice that young learners sit together to learn English, and the teacher is able to manage the class successfully, but having fun and ease alone is not enough. We should aim for “fun, ease and outcomes”.*

    *Assessing Young Learners of English: Global and Local Perspectives,Dr Marianne Nikolov, 2016.

    Which important dynamics should be considered?

    The assigned piece of homework said: write an email to a friend and tell her about your last holiday. However, what actually occurred was a shift from this task to the students’ best performance in producing simple past-tense sentences. There are other important dynamics that have migrated out of the teacher’s focus. Did the students begin their emails appropriately? Was the tone appropriate? Did they pay attention to organizing their thoughts into sentences and paragraphs? Was the punctuation correct? Did they end their emails in the right way?

    If the coursebook had been equipped with clear and concrete learning objectives, the course directors would have employed them while designing study syllabuses, and the teacher would have used them when lesson planning. Consequently, the student’s formative and summative progress would have been evaluated against those detailed learning objectives rather than according to what some did better than the average.

    How can learning objectives be applied to tasks?

    With the Global Scale of English (GSE), publishers, course designers, teachers, and even parents can access a new world of English language teaching and testing. This global English language standard provides specific learning objectives for young learners that can be applied to tasks.

    For example, for our task, the GSE suggests the following learning objectives:

    • Can write short, simple personalemails/letters about familiar topics, given prompts or a model.(GSE 40/A2+)
    • Can use appropriate standard greetings and closings in simple, informal personal messages (e.g., postcards or emails). (GSE: 37/A2+)

    By applying language learning chunks – learning objectives, grammar and vocabulary – and identifying the can-do mission each one is supposed to accomplish, teaching and testing become more tangible, practical and measurable. Going back to my original scenario, it is excellent that young learners sit together for two hours, three times a week to learn English as a Foreign Language – provided that we know in detail which learning objectives to focus on, which skills to grow and what learning outcomes to expect.

  • A teacher stood at the front of the class talking to her class

    English for employability: Why teaching general English is not enough

    By Ehsan Gorji
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Many English language learners are studying English with the aim of getting down to the nitty-gritty of the language they need for their profession. Whether the learner is an engineer, a lawyer, a nanny, a nurse, a police officer, a cook, or a salesperson, simply teaching general English or even English for specific purposes is not enough. We need to improve our learners’ skills for employability.

    The four maxims of conversation

    In his article Logic and Conversation, Paul Grice, a philosopher of language, proposes that every conversation is based on four maxims: quantity, quality, relation and manner. He believes that if these maxims combine successfully, then the best conversation will take place and the right message will be delivered to the right person at the right time.

    The four maxims take on a deeper significance when it comes to the workplace, where things are often more formal and more urgent. Many human resources (HR) managers have spent hours fine-tuning workplace conversations simply because a job candidate or employee has not been adequately educated to the level of English language that a job role demands. This, coupled with the fact that many companies across the globe are adopting English as their official corporate language, has resulted in a new requirement in the world of business: mastery of the English language.

    It would not be satisfactory for an employee to be turned down for a job vacancy, to be disqualified after a while; or fail to fulfil his or her assigned tasks, because their English language profile either does not correlate with what the job fully expects or does not possess even the essential must-have can-dos of the job role.

    How the GSE Job Profiles can help

    The Job Profiles within the can help target those ‘must-have can-dos’ related to various job roles. The ‘Choose Learner’ drop-down menu offers the opportunity to view GSE Learning Objectives for four learner types: in this case, select ‘Professional Learners’. You can then click on the ‘Choose Job Role’ button to narrow down the objectives specific for a particular job role – for example, ‘Office and Administrative Support’ and then ‘Hotel, Motel and Resort Desk Clerks’.

    Then, I can choose the GSE/CEFR range I want to apply to my results. In this example, I would like to know what English language skills a hotel desk clerk is expected to master for B1-B1+/GSE: 43-58.