There seem to be conflicting points of view on this subject. Some people say pronunciation is not too important early on, that learning grammar and vocabulary is most important and pronunciation can be improved later on.
Others say that it is important to use proper pronunciation right away so that you do not ingrain bad habits which may be difficult to reverse later on.
What do you think? When do YOU focus on proper pronunciation?
I am asking specifically for French because I have difficulty with some vowels and of course the "r" but I am interested in hearing your experience in any second language.
What methods have you used to improve your pronunciation? (especially french would be helpful!)
Merci.
In a certain way, pronunciation mistakes should be treated as grammar mistakes.
It means that a balance must be found between correcting and letting the learner grasp the langage, use it and get confidence with it.
(It also means that as every learner is different, it's important to know his/her strenghts and weaknesses and his/her goals)
When I learn a language by myself, I try to get the right pronunciation from the beginning.
Life is unfair, and it's easier for some people than for other (I'm part of the people for whom it's easier).
But, if I can't do a sound correctly and it's not too prejudicial, I accept my weakness and don't bother with it.
It can be useful to work on words by pair to see how important is the difference ("deux ans" versus "douze ans").
For the voyels, I also recommand to have a look on phonetic explainations. It's not an obscure and secret science - it's pragmatique and just explain the body (lips, tongue, aperture).
There's a famous trapezium. Learn it from the English sounds (so you can EXPERIMENT by yourself where you put your tongue, how open is your mouth, how round are your lips with that voyel and that other voyel) and then, compare with the French voyels.
About the "r", it's close to the gargling sound. So put water in your mouth and gargle - it's quite that same "movement" we do to do a French "r".
I believe you shouls focus on pronunciation and orthography starting from the beginning. Otherwise you fossilize bad pronunciation. I wrote a post about this here:
http://polydog.org/index.php?threads/synergy-part-1-my-method-of-learning-languages.4/
My advice is to learn the most correct pronunciation from Day 1.
Only just saw this post on the subject:
http://www.memrise.com/blog/how-to-play-the-accents-game/
I think it has a good point. The best is to get your pronunciation somewhere between the level where you get compliments for it (because let's admit it, it feels nice!) and where people think you know the language much better than you do, because that can easily lead to problems! If you're a foreigner and obviously don't speak the language well, you can say a lot of things and make a lot of social faux pas without anyone minding. And if the only thing you can say is "I don't speak X language" but have a really good pronunciation, then no one is going to believe you!
I agree as well that you should start first with pronouncing words correctly. Most of the people I talk with do not have English as thier native language. It is much easier to understand poor grammar over poor pronounciation.
