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Acquiring a native accent not essential

Why should foreigners have to sound like native speakers anyway?

It is a truism that language, especially English, is a stepping stone to global communication and opportunities ranging from education to business, entertainment and politics. Taiwanese parents understand this and spend huge sums on tuition to have their children learn English in preschools, kindergartens and language schools.

Kao Shih-fan, an assistant professor at the Jinwen University of Science and Technology, was right in saying ("The best time for learning English," March 25, page 8) that except for pronunciation and intonation, older learners can also master a language; so why is sounding like a native so important to many Taiwanese?

In my opinion, this comes from two misconceptions: first, unfounded beliefs about international communication; and second, an uncritical model of English that infiltrates teacher training, teaching, (applied) linguistic research and textbook development.

In World Englishes, Andy Kirkpatrick challenges the native speaker model as the goal of both learners and teachers. The reality is learners in non-English- speaking countries don't have sufficient exposure and practice to make this goal achievable.

Is it possible to create such a model? The question is what model of native speaker's English should be used. British? American? Canadian? Australian? South African? And, of course, within each country there is also a wide variation of accents and idioms.

An examination of communication between non-native speakers of English in international business situations is instructive. Very often, the language is not accurate, but by using different conversation strategies, such as repetition, pausing and non-idiomatic language, communication is often fluent and successful.

Add in the fact that native speakers do not expect nor demand that non-native speakers' English be perfect.

Herein lies a fallacious assumption on the part of many language learners, researchers, teachers and textbook producers: All language learners need to sound like native speakers and want to live in English-speaking countries.

While some English learners want to live abroad, the majority neither have the means nor the desire to do so. English for this unrepresented majority is a tool -- a means to practical ends.

Teaching that spends too much time drilling superficial aspects of language that do not cause misunderstandings, such as using the third person singular or past tense, and mispronunciations that resist acquisition, is not only a boring but also an ineffective practice.

Ideally, teachers should want their students to have the ability to speak smoothly and express complex ideas as real world or international situations demand. But it is a malpractice to focus on exercises that do little to increase the learners' language fluency and complexity.

Research and common experience tells us that speakers who learned languages at a young age have accurate and natural pronunciation. But why should foreigners have to sound like native speakers?

In this age of globalization, a person's accent can be -- and should be -- a mark of distinction and pride. At the last English Teaching Association of the Republic of China conference, Liu Jun (劉駿), a Chinese researcher and the only non-native speaker to hold the position of president of TESOL, prefaced his speech in impeccable English by commenting on his success at learning English, but remarking on his Chinese accent. But with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, he said: "Perhaps I didn't want to give it up."

Nigel Daly is the academic director of Kojen ELC.
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