中国学生英语口语自学误区(4)

There is no shortage of superb English speakers and writers in my native country, Canada, who have excellent pronunciation, but heavy accents from their countries of origin. In fact, two great Indo-Canadian writers Michael Ondaatje and Rohinton Misty both have slight non-Canadian accents in English, but are * Booker Prize16 winners. Do we say that their English is substandard, because they have accents? No, it would be absurd to make such a suggestion since their pronunciation is excellent and no one has any trouble understanding them. As I mentioned earlier, pronunciation is not the same thing as an accent.
　　I tell my students to give up their hope of developing an American accent, since it is very unlikely to happen unless they stay in America over a very long period, and even then, the are still likely to retain some part of their Chinese accent. An accent is par of your character and heritage.
　　That is not to say that the student shouldn‘t devote time to improving his or her pronunciation. A student should focus on those pronunciation aspects that make their communication more effective, not trying to mold their accent into another. Developing pronunciation skills that are universally learnt is a much more worthy pursuit of your efforts than trying to copy an accent that is unnatural for your tongue and mouth.
　　Misconception Ⅲ
　　I need a rich vocabulary before beginning to speak.
　　Often I hear students complain that they become tongue tied, meaning that they can‘t find the right words. Students will attribute it to a lack of vocabulary and memorize more words to compensate. Then they find after a few more thousand words that their English improves only slightly. Why?
　　Your memory is a key element to learning a language and no one should minimize its importance. Without a memory, you wouldn‘t be able to speak. However, it is also true that a lack of vocabulary is not the culprit17 of communication problems in many instances. It is important to look at other issues, before blaming it as the source of these communication difficulties. I have observed a great many CET-6 graduates who still have a great deal of trouble even uttering simple sentences, while other CET-4 students can speak with much greater ease. How can that be, you might ask? 　

By Nevin Blumer