by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha and Viktor Carrasquero
On 08 June 2023, we (Ana and Viktor, PronSIG’s joint bloggers) had the chance to attend a Cambridge English webinar, ‘How to become a proud non-native speaker of English’, with Jiri Horak. It aimed to discuss what usually influences learners’ confidence when communicating in English, and provide teachers with examples of ready-made activities and ideas to be implemented in their lessons. It was divided into four main aspects:
- Becoming proud of your accent.
- Developing a positive attitude towards mistakes.
- Proving yourself in real-life situations.
- Finding ways to feel safe.
At first, we were intrigued by the title because of its underlying assumptions and implications. Considering that we are L2 users, Ana is Brazilian and Viktor is Venezuelan, we thought: ‘But we are proud of our communication skills in English despite our being non-native speakers, whatever that means…’ Then, after the webinar, we decided to expand the discussion, especially focusing on the role of pronunciation when helping learners develop their communicative skills as well as their identity as English speakers. That is why we are writing this post and would like to invite you to reflect with us.
1. What does ‘being proud’ and ‘being a non-native speaker’ mean?
Spoken language and its characteristics -take accent, for instance- are true identity markers. Bound to a person’s sense of self, the way we speak is at the core of how we and others perceive ourselves. Pride, understood as self-respect and dignity, allows us to see ourselves as valuable and important, deserving and distinct. Pride is not to be mistaken for confidence, which learners of a second language often need to build upon as they develop their language skills. While both are linked to who a person is, the fact that some learners of English insist they would like to be ‘native-sounding’ does not necessarily indicate that they do not take pride in their own, personal English. We believe that this desire speaks more of the way the speech variants of L1 English communities have been traditionally socialised and marketed. Thus, raising learners’ awareness of their budding language powers is necessary, a task that we should all be involved in. We wonder, however, if the dichotomy ‘native – non-native speaker’ is the best to describe the members of speech communities, as well as language learners. Do we really think that language proficiency occurs exclusively at the end of the language learning process? Also, are so-called ‘native speakers’ capable of showing equivalent levels of proficiency across all language skills, in all language interactions, levels and genres? If expecting L1 users of English to be ‘perfectly proficient’ is unrealistic and, probably, an impossibility, it follows that we should not expect our learners to demonstrate proficiency by merely sounding like L1 speakers.
We suspect that this dichotomy is vastly insufficient to describe the complexity that surrounds language use and mastery. L2 learners should take pride in their linguistic gains, which have come at great effort. We also need to rethink whether using the ‘native – non-native’ opposition is truly empowering and appropriate. We would not want to use broad, vaguely defined, and potentially stigmatising terms to describe success and who a person is, terms which learners might not fully grasp (we have discussed the question “Do students really know what they mean [when they say ‘I want to sound like a native speaker’]?” in a previous post: click here to check it out).
2. How can we help learners become more confident when communicating in English?
A lot of pressure and insecurities usually surround L2 learners, especially in real-life exchanges. Many of them do well in class, are dedicated and work hard, but completely freeze or block when trying to speak English, be it in an informal chat with international speakers, or in a doctor’s appointment when living in an English-speaking country. Inevitably, when they open their mouths and say something, they are automatically showing where they are from, what level their English is, and how confident they are or not in their own skin as speakers of the language. Similarly, they are also automatically judged, consciously or unconsciously, because of that. Therefore, linguistic, cultural and communicative needs are all interconnected and should be addressed in the classroom.
To illustrate that, one of the activities suggested in the webinar focused on how to help learners better deal with their mistakes when speaking English. Due to reasons such as personal objectives, cultural or educational influences, social recognition, among others, many students tend to dwell on their mistakes rather than recognising their effort towards the language. These were the stages presented:
- Stage 1: In one lesson, pair students up.
- Stage 2: One student tells their partner something they enjoyed doing this week, and deliberately makes a few mistakes, e.g., wrong verb tense: ‘Yesterday I play tennis with my friends’.
- Stage 3: The other student tells their partner something they didn’t enjoy doing this week, and deliberately makes a few mistakes as well.
- Stage 4: In the following lesson, or a few days later, put students in different pairs, and ask them to tell their previous partner’s story. Ask students whether they remember the story or any mistakes their previous partner made.
- Stage 5: Ask students to reflect: ‘In your experience, to what degree do listeners focus on and remember the speaker’s mistakes?’
The whole point of this activity is to show learners that we are more likely to remember people’s stories instead of their language mistakes because what they share with us and vice-versa is far more relevant and meaningful in communication. They are what really stick in our minds rather than the wrong use of verb tense, for instance.
In terms of pronunciation, we could add:
- Stage 6: Ask students to list 2-3 pronunciation difficulties they often have when they are speaking English, e.g. articulating the consonant sound /θ/ as in thief /θiːf/; not pronouncing final consonant clusters such as strict, strength, attempt, among others; using word stress inaccurately; etc.
- Stage 7: Pair students up. Ask them to compare lists and check whether they have similar or different ideas.
- Stage 8: List some of students’ difficulties on the board and have a class discussion: ask students to consider whether some difficulties/mistakes can really cause breakdowns in communication, e.g., saying ‘attem’ instead of ‘attempt’ or lanGUAGE instead of LANguage; or do not have such a huge impact, e.g., saying ‘thief’ without articulating the /θ/ sound /tiːf/ (For more on that, check the Lingua Franca Core in Jenkins, 2000, and in Walker, Low & Setter, 2021).
These stages can help promote reflection and discussion on the relevance of intelligibility and how it affects communication. However, this does not mean that we are telling learners that it is OK to accept all pronunciation mistakes at the expense of intelligibility. We are showing them that getting the message across, understanding and being understood are the basis of effective communication, and that is what they should focus on. In this way, they can gradually alleviate their burden, and hopefully become more confident speakers of English.
In relation to that, it is crucial to remember that promoting students’ reflection on their communicative skills is a process, it does not happen overnight. Some of them may be reluctant to deal with their anxieties, difficulties and mistakes in a more formative way because they might be used to doing it summatively. Thus, it is our job as teachers to give them chances to engage in reflective learning as much as we engage in reflective teaching ourselves (For more on reflective pronunciation teaching, check this blog post).
Finally, what we feel is that more attention should be given when using controversial terms such as ‘being proud’, ‘native speakers’, and ‘non-native speakers’ because they may imply different things to different people and perpetuate stereotypes. As speakers of English, we want to develop our confidence when communicating in the language, regardless of where we are from and how we feel about that.
Don’t forget to check our previous blog posts about Pronunciation Teaching, follow PronSIG on social media, and leave your comments below.
References
Jenkins, J. (2000). The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walker, R., Low, E., & Setter, J. (2021). English pronunciation for a global world [PDF]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. www.oup.com/elt/expert
