Probably one of the least important aspects of langauge learning, that is taking the most attention, is accent. I don't exactly know why people are so concerned about having a native accent. I personally have a native-like accent and i don't even know how it happened, i never tried to have a native accent, i just developed it unconsciously. However, recently i've noticed that people care too much about how native-like a peaker speaks a foreign language and their only criterion is how a speaker can make the sounds of a language because apparently laypeople cannot recognize other important aspects of language such as vocabulary or syntax or even cultural and pragmatic aspects. For example, is the speaker using the common words or expressions?! And the reason is clear, they have heard the sound of a certain langaueg here and there and even if someone says something wrong but with a beautiful accent, which is APPARENTLY native-like, they leave an impression on the hearers. And interestingly enough, the native speakers themselves can easily recognize if a speaker is native or not. There are so many nuances concerning accent and pronunciation, and research shows it's almost impossible to develop a native accent, the most you can get at is native-LIKE.(I said ALMOST because there are always exceptions, though in this case very rare!)
I don't want to make this a phonological discussion. I want to know what others think about this phenomenon. Should people speak a certain aspect like American and British? or can we say that English as an international language can have international acents (and even dialects)? As there are different accents (or even dialects!) of any language. Looking carefully, one can see there are different English accents too, American, British, Australian, Scotish, Irish, and so on. Even in English speaking countries there are regional accents, Northern American and southern American are differnet.
Now the bottom line is, which one do you think is better, having a fake native accent or having an understandable regional accent, like indian English or Japanese English?!
Thanks again Karl for your honest comments. I'm sort of an expert in this case as a student of linuistics adn i can see you have a good argumentative skill. Well you mentioned so many points. The first one is you asserted that accent and pronunication is a part of the identity of a language. First of all i doubt if a language has any ceratin and fixed identity, language is an evolutionary phenomonon, It changes over time. The English spoken todays is different in many ways from the English spoken in Shakespeare's time or even the English spoken 10 years ago. So of course this langauge can change in space too as well as time. Saying that English or any other language has a certain identity it means it belongs to a certain culture or country. Of course English is language spoken in English speaking countries but it doesn't mean it's a commodity other countries should buy from them. The aim is to have a universal and international language so people from around the world can communicate in different ways. To adapt this identity you're talking about means to absorb the culture a language has which is the foundation of linguistic imperialism, what the English have been doing this their langauge became the international language (no offense to my Egnlish friends,i don't generlize but this is what really happened). So i wouldn't say language has any identity, even if it does it can change and other people can modify it and make it their own, this is normally happens when two langauges are merged and a new language is born, this hybrid is technically called "a creole". Languages like Hispanish, African-American English, and a bunch of other creoles.
If it's ok to say my opinion, I'd like to say that you may not see that the accent is important but others vice versa, for me I'm concerned about it, if you asked me why, I'll tell you that it's like loving a song and you wish to perform it perfectly! English is the lyrics, accent is the tune or the melody, and native speakers are the singers !! You can't feel the lyrics during reading as much as feeling them while singing them with the tune!
and another thing is that the natives speaks with the pure language , and for me if I want to learn perfectly, I would like to learn it from it's origin, just like learning from the parent not the children.
Finally, I say it's lovely for me to learn the native aaccent, but the more important is knowing how to communicate and understand each other.
When listening to my language partners some have a more pleasant way of speaking English than others and some are more understandable than others even if their native language is the same and their vocabulary and grammar are at the same levels. It can be quite tiring to listen to someone who does not incorporate at least some of the rhythms, pitch changes and cadences of natural English into their speech or at least choose those that are pleasing to the native ear. Pronunciation is important to be understood and if the accent is too strong I simply will not understand, but pronunciation will also determine if I also WANT to listen or not. The "music" of a language is what can take an accent and make it charming... or ugly to the native ear. Some of my friends' foreing accents are a real joy to listen too ... like well done foreign music. Some others I try to help to find their own lovely voice in English because they are off in a direction that is not appealing. EVERYONE has an accent. I have an accent in English. Some natives even try to change their accents to more appealing ones! It's whether it's an understandable and PLEASING accent or not is what I think people should be concerned about. Finding your own "voice" in a language is the key. To do that though, I do believe that thinking about pronunciation and the music of a language is really important. No one will be the same and that's a wonderful thing.
i should also apologize for some misspellings i made. I was in a kind of hurry and didn't check what i wrote. I certainly don't believe that misspellings are also justifiable ;)
But back to the main discussion of accent as an inseperable part of language, i would bring up the example of African-Amercian English again. One can see so many differences in their acccent but they are still undertandable and considered to be speaking English, although they are discriminated against. Their accent is the result of combining English phenological rules with their native tongue's phenological rules. However, when it comes to other accents like Iranian English, Indian English, or even Greek English, some biased peolple raise the dicrimination and keep torturing people to copy the natives, which as i already mentioned and you agrreed with is scientifically impossible. The problem gets way more complicated when it comes to other levels of langauge like vocabulary, grammar and specially culture! To prove my point i should mention that some scholars are trying to design and international English dictionary i which expression like "i am agreed with" or "he married with that girl" and a ton of other supposedly wrong expression are not wrong.
The notion that accent and sound are not a part of language is a far more complicated one and i don't think i can convince you in such a forum. It actually requires a lot of background in linguistics too, which as you said you're not a linguist.
I repeat myself once more, i still believe it's ok if people speak international dialects of English as long as they are understood.
(i'm sorry if my writing sounds a bit incoherent, that's one of my main problems when i want to express myself, i can't organize my thoughts well, and they seem chatic at times, need to work on it)
