Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: Kitt@cary.demon.co.uk (Kittredge Cowlishaw)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!news.duke.edu!convex!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!demon!cary.demon.co.uk!Kitt
Subject: Re: Perfect accent in a foreign language?
Distribution: world
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Organization: The Old School House
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Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 11:26:15 +0000
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s3e0101@sun2.lrz-muenchen.de writes:
> >> > [re adult second language learners with perfect accents]
> >> > [...] Scovel (1988) claims that
> >> > there is no empirical evidence that such individuals exist--and
> >> > he's been searching for such evidence since 1969.
> >>
> >> Can't we get away from the all-or-nothing, fatalistic approach of Scovel?
> >
> >If what the patient wants is for folks in Kentucky to stop thinking
> >"He's not from around here, is he?" when he speaks English, then no,
>
> [ideas on how to reduce foreign accents]
> Attitude:
> a] Breaking down taboos, [...]
> Techniques:
> a] Practising with stones etc. in one's mouth [Demosthenes].
> [...]
> d] Generally looking for ways of outwitting nature and finding a way of
> getting past the watchdog in one's mental system which stabilizes
> the voice. [...]
>
> The argument against any such ideas would seem to be the influential book by
> Scovel "A time to speak", but it does seem that in his plea for a sense of
> reality he is more attempting to comfort those wishing to explain why they
> have a foreign accent, than stating what can be done. [...]

One may find comfort in believing that the moon is a calabash, or
that the sun orbits the earth, or that adults cannot acquire
unaccented speech in a second language, but that doesn't make it the
case.  Whether there are age-related limitations on this ability is
a question of fact about which it's possible to have scientific
curiosity.  How comfortable we are with the facts that emerge is
a separate matter.

What discomforts *me* is the readiness of many researchers to
commit themselves to a favourite mechanism (neurological, cognitive,
affective, social, pedagogical, etc.) to explain apparent critical
period effects, in the absence of any compelling evidence to
differentiate them.

To take one example, a popular explanation of the data (i.e. that
only age of arrival predicts final native-like accent) is that
mature cognitive strategies of second language learning interfere
with native-like acquisition.  Now, so far it hasn't been possible
to decouple chronological age from cognitive maturity, so this
hypothesis has been embraced by some more or less as a matter of faith.

But this is *not* a religious question, and the hypothesis is
theoretically falsifiable.  We've recently seen more and more cases
of cognitive impairment with intact language function; it's tempting
to ask whether the second language phonology of such individuals
would be more native-like than that of normal adults.

Until we have some evidence to differentiate the various proposed
mechanisms, however, we're stuck with popular myths about the
importance of motivation, cultural empathy, direct sensory experience,
or the latest pedagogical fashion--not to mention the 'secret methods'
of those military spy schools.

In the meantime, by all means, break down your taboos, practise with
stones in your mouth, whatever turns you on--and let us know if it
works!

--Kittredge
