Reaching Near-Native Levels of Foreign Language Proficiency: The Importance of Pronunciation

 


Currently, I am in Indonesia, working with advanced language students. Here, I have noticed as elsewhere, whether in one of 25 countries where I have assisted with language education or in the USA, working with hundreds of very advanced students, that what holds them back, more than morphology, syntax, or lexicon, is pronunciation -- both sounds and intonation. Phonemic differences are not realized, let alone allophonic differences. Most adults do not have an "ear" for foreign sounds and intonation. They need to be taught -- and old-fashioned language labs, yes, believe it or not, with a skilled teacher or often the very best resources for correcting pronunciation. Short of that...come close with whatever resources you do have!

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Have you published a book recently (2022-2023) on a topic related to achieving near-native foreign language proficiency? Send it to the Journal for Distinguished Language Proficiency. JDLS is looking for books to review in JLDS 9 (2023-2024).

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We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from issue 8 of the journal at a very accessible price and will make the feature articles available from other issues as time goes on. Check our webstore to see what we have at any given time. We will announce and link each of these individually in upcoming blog posts.

The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies is available by subscription. JDLS is a biennial journal, and it is easy for time to slip by and miss the next issue. Subscription will take care of that. Subscribe HERE and never miss a copy. (Publishes typically in December of even-numbered years.)

Also, don't believe Amazon's listing of previous issues of The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies as out of print. It is very much in print and available at the MSI Press webstore. Subscription service available as noted above, and issues 1-6 are on sale for $5 each!

Amazon is selling issues 7 and 8.

For more posts about the JDLS, click HERE.

If you have a post to contribute to the Thursday high-level-language-proficiency topic, we would love to see it. Please send it to editor@msipress.com.


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