Accent Reduction is Paramount for English Learners

No ESL student wants to hears this but foreign accents undermine a speaker's credibility and make him or her appear untruthful in the eyes of native English speakers. Shiri Lev-Ari and Boaz Keysar of The University of Chicago published these findings in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. According to their research, accents make it difficult for native speakers to understand non-native speakers and this “processing difficulty” causes non-native speakers to sound less credible. The heavier an accent the less credible and truthful the person is perceived. According to the research, even the most trivial of statements are judged to be less true when spoken by a non-native than by a native speaker. Click here if you would like to download a copy of the Shiri Lev-Ari and Boaz Keysar article.

So what's the take away for ESL students? I'd say it's working long and hard to improve your pronunciation. It means becoming a better listener. Listen not only for comprehension but listen also for sound, stress and intonation patterns. When you notice you say a word or expression one way and you hear a native person say it another way, alarm bells of change should be going off in your head. We both know you're credible and truthful but there's a little bit of a battle you face before others know it too.