Beyond Perfect Pronunciation: Celebrating Diversity in Speech

How do you feel about your accent? Many of my clients come to me saying they feel their accent is too strong. They're worried that their accent hinders communication or that people judge them for their accent. My first question would be, do you have an accent when you speak your mother tongue? If so, do you worry that your accent causes miscommunication in your native language? If the answer is no, then why would you worry about that in English?

I often hear people say things like: my English is not good enough, my English should be better, or everyone is judging me for my poor English. They use any simple mistake as proof of these thoughts.

Many of us berate ourselves severely in our heads, this is something I am personally trying to cut down on, because we rarely pass judgement on others as harshly as we do on ourselves.

For my clients, who are mainly English teachers, I think there is a bit of extra pressure. I was speaking with one teacher last year who was preparing for the Cambridge C1 exam and she admitted to me that she was embarrassed to tell the examiner that she was an English teacher, because her English wasn't perfect.

If they are teaching English, their English should be perfect, they should have all the answers for their learners and never make a mistake, right?

I am not so sure about that.

We are all human – making mistakes is how we develop our skills. In fact, showing our students how to deal with making a mistake - rather than just denying it ever happened, like some people do – can, in itself, be a powerful lesson. We can learn from our mistakes: grow and become better versions of ourselves.

Also, what would perfect English look or sound like? I am slowly coming to the powerful realisation that perfection does not exist: it is a goal that can never be reached. We are all perfectly imperfect.

So, do we accept ourselves in all our imperfection and stay just as we are?

Well, learning to accept ourselves is definitely something to aim for. But it does not mean we cannot continue improving, wouldn't you agree?

You might be asking, how do you help your clients improve, while learning to accept themselves with kindness and grace, Jennie?

My focus is on building up self-confidence through pronunciation. This is because most of my clients say they feel self-conscious about their accent. Being here in Scotland, my friends, neighbours, and acquaintances would almost definitely say that having an accent is no bad thing. In fact, they might even say, it is part of their identity. And the same is true whether you have a Spanish, French or Italian accent. Accents are something to be celebrated and embraced.

The problem comes only when your pronunciation makes it challenging for others to understand what you are saying. After all, the whole reason to learn another language is to communicate, is it not?

Another problem is that when we learn another language, often the pronunciation is one of the most ignored aspects. This is because most teachers do not know how to teach it, feel it is unimportant because it is not tested, or they feel self-conscious about their own accent and do not want their learners to copy them. Honestly, your accent might be something you are unaware of, until you hear someone copy what you are saying.

If you do not mind, I would like to share a little story with you here: I grew up in Essex, in the south east of England and we have some German friends, in fact we are now in the 4th generation of this family friendship, as my Grandma took part in a school exchange in the early 50s - how brave was her mum! Anyway, they kept in touch, visiting each other, then my mum and the German lady's son kept in touch, taking turns to visit each other and now Tashi (his daughter) and I still meet up regularly. In the last year, both Tashi and my younger sister have had baby girls – they will be meeting for the first time soon.

Back to the story, when Tashi and I were still in primary school, one time when they were in Essex visiting us, I noticed Tashi's dad switching between calling her Tashi and Tash-ai! I was unsure why, so I asked my mum and she explained that he was copying us! That totally shocked me – I had thought I was pronouncing Tashi's name the same way as them – I had been completely unaware of my accent before that point.

So, only by coming aware of our own accent and how pronunciation in English works, can we build up our confidence in teaching it. Again, this is something I was unaware of when I first started teaching nearly 14 years ago now. In fact, it was not until 2018, when I started a Diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language that I began incorporating it into my lessons. Once I started to see the difference it made for my learners, I was addicted and it became a steady fixture in all my classes. And now it is my main focus.

My mission is to help other teachers embrace pronunciation as an integral part of language learning, by giving them tips and tools to enhance their confidence, without worrying about perfection and allow them to get better results for their own learners.

The community I am creating is becoming a safe haven for like-minded English speakers to come together and work on their self-esteem, so that they can stop feeling awkward in English and start feeling like their best selves.

Why not start by taking part in my free 5-day pronunciation challenge, in order to help you build up your confidence so you can speak proudly and clearly? Click here for more details and to sign up: https://excellenceinenglisheducation.com/Pronunciation-Challenge

If you would like more details of other ways you could join my community, to start increasing your self-confidence in your spoken English and to improve your own understanding of English pronunciation, please send me a DM or email me at: [email protected]