I believe that
learning a foreign language is an established training. I've
spent my whole life working on mastering languages.
We have to practice
every day and should communicate with natives as often as possible.
If we do not have the
time or a chance, we will lose our conversational skills.
They say practice makes
perfect; whatever I think about this slogan, it seems to be true.
At the same time, I
am aware of the fact that I will never speak like a native.
For me, the most
noteworthy is communication. In my view, pronunciation is significant as long
as the meaning is concerned. Nowadays we talk about “standard English” which
has been used internationally.
Many people want to talk
like a native. I would like to announce that accents are acceptable as long as
they are understandable.
I never force
learners to sound like native speakers, simply because they are not, besides I
am also not a native English teacher. We must teach towards intelligibility,
rather than a 'native' accent. Accent reduction in my opinion means increasing
correct and easily understandable accent.
Moreover, I use a
lot of songs in my teaching. Through songs, students discover the natural
stretching and compacting of the stream of English speech.
Students may orally summarize the spirit or matter of a song or give oral presentations
about a song or musician. Many songs tell a story, and these stories can be
rewritten or retold to practice narrative or summarizing skills.
This method works for my learners exceptionally well.
Generally, I think
that we learn languages to communicate, and accurate delivery is not the most
valuable skill to develop.
All in all,
everybody needs to improve communication skills, and it is an entire lifetime
job, including native speakers.
Therefore from my
point of view, the answer to the question - how long does it take to speak a
language? – is….
It takes a lifetime.
