SOUNDS YOU GENERATE WHEN YOU COMMUNICATE (PART A)

Every language has a sound system used by its native speakers. The sound repertoire is learned and internalized by children during infancy, mostly through copying and vocal repetition

Humans are born with innate abilities for language and speech acquisition, and for learning all sounds in the world. As children grow and develop, they internalize and ‘adopt’ the sound system in their environment and establish it as their ’default’ system.

In early years, children can more readily acquire other sound systems, so a Russian born child with English parents, can easily learn 2 sound systems and sound ‘native’ in both, provided the child maintains continuous usage of the 2 languages.

Color coded common English sound substitutions by foreign speakers. — Common foreign sound substitutions from French and German into English

Some children can handle well 3 languages or more, depending on auditory acuity and abilities.

In some countries, such as Belgium and Canada, it is not unusual for some people to be ‘bilingual’ speakers, sounding native in two tongues.

However, most adults find it hard to acquire the repertoire of a new language, and need guidance to pronounce correctly its sounds, occasionally feeling embarrassed or insecure.

So how do foreign speakers overcome naturally this challenge?

The ‘foreign’ speaker often substitutes the sounds of his native language for the unfamiliar ‘new’ sounds.Thus, a frenchman may substitute ‘Z’ for the ‘TH’ sound in English, perceiving this sound to be phonologically the closest to the ‘target’ sound in the ‘new’ language. A German native may substitute ‘T’ for ‘TH’, as the English ‘TH’ sound does not exist in the German repertoire.

This is called “importing your sound”. It may work for daily usage but can cause ‘humorous’ or unpleasant confusion in the communications.

Some sounds and vowels do not exist in the native tongue and are very often confused or interchanged.These “new’ sounds are not differentiated during speaking and can cause misunderstandings.

An example : Asking for “rice” but actually saying “lice”

Speech Sensations lessons provide visualized sound discrimination for correction of foreign accent for Far Eastern speakers — Another common error in foreign sound production, causing confusion in English words

or saying “jam” for “germ” “fit” for “feet”

How do we learn the correct pronunciation of“new sounds” in an

acquired language?

Read Part B of this Blog to find out.

Also don’t forget to check out ACCENTUATIONS SERIES for correct acquisition of new English sounds.