Not "feeling" like losing an accent (dialect?)

[Tom Zurinskas]

Steve says we can lose accents, but we choose not to for various reasons.  I
just talked to a lady from Denver who wants to live in Roanoke VA.  She said
she was raised in Roanoke and is going back.  I said she had me fooled and
had no Roanoke dialect at all.  People do change after 5 years old.  See
another view below.

Tom Z


A Conjecture on Accent in a Second Language (1997) Stephen Krashen

Originally published in Z. Lengyel, J. Navracsics, and O. Simon (Eds. )
1997. Applied Linguistic Studies in Central Europe, vol 1. Department of
Applied Linguistics, University of Veszprem, Hungary.

Scientists use the term "conjecture" when their generalization is based on
such flimsy evidence that it does not deserve the label "hypothesis." This
is such a case.
My conjecture is that accurate pronunciation in a second language, even in
adults, is acquired rapidly and very well. We simply do not use our best
accents because we feel silly.  Restated in more respectable terms, we have
an "output filter," a block that keeps us from doing our best, from
"performing our competence." This block is powerful and it is difficulty,
maybe impossible, to lower or weaken it with conscious effort. (The output
filter differs from the affective, or input filter.  The affective filter
prevents input from reaching the language acquisition device. The output
filter prevents us from using what we have acquired. ) Here is the flimsy
evidence. Much of it is based on my own experience, but I suspect, after
presenting these ideas to a number of audiences and getting reactions, that
others have had similar experiences.
1. Variability: Our accents in second languages vary, depending on how we
feel. We are influenced by the situation, especially whether we feel we are
being evaluated. When I speak French to someone who doesn’t speak English
(or at least not very well), where there is no audience, and I am
comfortable with that person, I must say that my accent is not bad. On other
occasions I have been told that I speak French without a traced of a French
accent.  Here is an example of the latter, an experience I hope some readers
can identify with. I was visiting Ottawa in the early 1980’s, meeting with
former colleagues,  discussing, in French, our work on sheltered subject
matter teaching which had begun when I worked there a few years before. I
was very comfortable with the group I was talking with; they included a
close friend and my former French teacher. I was doing very well.  While I
was at the chalkboard, making a point, a stranger entered the room. My mind
raced: This man is probably a native speaker of French, or at least much
better than I am, and he probably thinks my French is terrible. My accent
and fluency deteriorated immediately and involuntarily. In other words, my
output filter went up.  One of the most accomplished polyglots in the world,
Dr. Kato Lomb of Hungary, reports that she has had similar experiences. Now
88, Dr. Lomb has acquired 17 languages and is now working on Hebrew. I
visited Dr.  Lomb several times recently, and we spoke English (her English
is excellent). On one visit, my wife and daughter came with me. Dr. Lomb
remarked to me that she felt her accent in English had been better when we
were alone. She explained that she felt quite comfortable with my wife and
daughter, but the fact that she did not know them as well as she knew me
caused a small amount of self-consciousness and hurt her performance. Dr.
Lomb is an enormously successful language acquirer and an experienced
interpreter; if she feels the effects of the output filter, we can be sure
others do.
2. Our ability to imitate other dialects of our first language, as well as
foreign accents. Given sufficient input, we can all do these things to at
least some extent. The point is that we do not, because we would feel
uncomfortable doing so. The output filter holds us back.  I can imitate, to
some extent, a British accent. I have acquired the rules for doing so
subconsciously, and have no idea what kind of articulatory adjustments I am
making when I do it. I do not, however, use a British accent when speaking
to someone from London.  My perception is that it would be rude, and even
ridiculing, as if I were making fun of his speech, or as if I were
representing myself as someone I am not.  Similarly, we can imitate foreign
accents in our first language. Obviously, we do not do this in ordinary
conversation. It would, we feel, be perceived as rude.  There are domains in
which the use of these accents is permitted, in plays and jokes, for
example. Even in these situations, however, their use is sensitive. In
plays, dialects must be rendered very accurately, and in jokes their use can
be demeaning.  Our ability, yet reluctance to use accents and dialects again
shows that we do not perform our competence fully and that there are
powerful affective forces holding us back.
3. The alcohol study. Guiora, Beit-Hallahmi, Brannon, Dull, and Scovel
(1972) asked subjects to drink different amounts of alcohol after eating a
candy bar.  Not unexpectedly, they reported that subjects’ short-term memory
decreased with greater consumption.  Accent in a foreign language, however,
was best after subjects drank 1.5 ounces of bourbon. It was less accurate
with both less and more than this amount of alcohol. There was, in other
words, an optimal point of inebriation. As most of us know, alcohol has the
effect of lowering inhibitions. My interpretation of these results is that
alcohol lowers the output filter, at least temporarily. Too much alcohol,
however, disturbs control of the speech apparatus.
4. Stevick’s example. Stevick (1980) describes a Swahili class he taught at
the Foreign Service Institute that had three students in it. One was at a
significantly higher level than the others. When the top student had to drop
the class, the number two student suddenly showed a dramatic improvement. My
conjecture is that his output filter lowered, freed from the inhibiting
influence of the better student.
Discussion
To understand what factors are at work here, we need to consider what
language is for. Sociolinguists tell us that language has two functions: To
communicate and to mark the speaker as a member of a social group. A part of
language that plays a major role in marking us as members of a social group
is accent. Accent has little to do with communication; we can communicate
quite well in another language having acquired only some of the sound
system. Accent tells the hearer who you are, where you are from, in some
cases your social class, and in other cases your values. When we identify
with the members of a group, we talk the way they do.  Beebe’s review
(Beebe, 1985) confirms this. We do not always imitate the speech we hear the
most. Children usually talk the way their peers talk, not the way their
parents or teachers talk. (In some cases, children do talk like their
parents; these children identify with adult values, rather than those of
other children, confirming that it is group membership that counts.) My
conjecture is that accent is acquired rapidly but is not performed, because
we do not feel like members of the group that uses it; we are not members of
the club (Smith, 1988). Either we do not wish to be members or have not been
invited to be members. And even after we feel we are at least partly in the
group, we can feel suddenly excluded, resulting in a stronger output filter.
If this conjecture is correct, it has interesting implications for pedagogy.
Despite the numerous "accent improvement" courses available, there is no
evidence that second language accent can be permanently improved by direct
instruction. Even if we could improve accent through instruction, however,
the effect might be harmful. Getting people to talk like members of groups
they do not belong to may be similar to convincing someone to wear
inappropriate clothing - a tuxedo at an informal lunch or a jogging suit at
a formal dinner.
This conjecture does not suggest that all those with accents in their second
language who live in the country where the language is spoken have failed to
become members of society. In fact, it suggests the contrary. Most second
language acquirers have good accents. Listen to them carefully. They are
rarely perfect if they began the second language as adults, but they
typically acquire an impressive amount of the sound system. They certainly
do not speak the second language using only the sound system of their first
language. The problem is that we usually make "all or nothing" judgments
with respect to accent. Either it is native-like or "accented." In reality,
many second language acquirers acquire substantial amounts of the second
language accent. In addition, it is likely that we hear them under less than
optimal affective conditions: with lower output filters, they may sound even
better.
If this conjecture is correct, another conclusion we can draw is that only
our "best" accents, produced under optimal conditions, should be considered
when judging accent quality or when discussing the limits of adult
acquisition of pronunciation.
References
Beebe, L. 1985. Input: Choosing the right stuff. In Gass, S. and Madden. C.
(Eds. ) Input in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Newbury House. pp.
404-414.
Guiora, A. , Beit-Hallahmi, B. , Brannon, R. , Dull, C.  and Scovel, T.
1972. The effects of experimentally induced changes in ego status on
pronunciation ability in a second language. Comprehensive Psychiatry 13:
421-428.
Smith, F. 1988. Joining the Literacy Club. Portsmouth,  NH: Heinemann.
Stevick, E. 1980. Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways.  New York: Newbury
House.

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