Start New Year by Setting Reasonable Learning Goals - December 03, 2024

0:02For VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report. Learning a new language is a long, difficult process. This process can become easier if you set goals. help guide language learners and give them reasons to continue studying a language. However, if you set unreasonable goals, then you will probably become discouraged. Many English learners set difficult, even unreasonable, goals. For example, here at VOA Learning English, we often read emails with comments like, My goal is to sound like a native speaker. Or my goal is lose my accent. The problem with the goal of sounding like a native speaker is that it is not a reasonable goal for many people. When English learners begin studying English after a certain age, they are not able to

1:12sound exactly like a Native English speaker. That is the opinion of Ellie Hinkle, a professor at Seattle Pacific University. She says that people who have not reached puberty still have enough muscle and brain plasticity to allow their brain to control their mouth muscles. Puberty is the period of life when a child becomes an adult. After your physical growth has stopped, the brain loses some of its ability to change the way it controls the muscles of the mouth. This is what results in an accent, according to Hinkle. In other words, having an accent is a natural part of the aging process of the brain. Just because you might not sound like a native speaker does not mean that you should give up trying to improve your pronunciation, and just because you have an accent does not

2:15mean that your language skills are poor. Hinkle suggested that English learners should not be too disheartened about their accents. So there is really no connection between the quality of one's language and accent. She adds that there are even benefits to having an accent. Helle Hinkle is a native Russian speaker, but she works as a professor in a Teaching English as a Second Language program. She believes her accent helps her when she is teaching students. So I teach MA TESOL courses. So my students think that I really, really know what I'm talking about. Accent goes a great deal toward that. Another teacher says, sounding like a native speaker is not necessary. Marla Yoshida is teaching English as a foreign language teacher at the University of California

3:22Irvine. She says that improving your pronunciation is definitely possible if you choose a reasonable goal. You can reach a stage where your pronunciation is easy for people to understand, where it never causes a problem. You go into Starbucks and say your name and they understand. You give your order and they'll understand. So what can English learners do to improve their pronunciation? Marla Yoshida says that, like when you decide to diet, you are more likely to have success if you set reasonable goals. She suggests working on specific areas of pronunciation that you can improve, instead of trying to sound like a native speaker. Work consciously if you're an adult to change the way you pronounce and it's kind

4:38of like a diet so if you set a more reasonable goal then the diet might succeed in the same Yoshida added that English learners should understand that improving their pronunciation can take a long time. She said that learners should not be tricked by people who claim to be able to help people get rid of their accents. It's good to realize that it's not a fast process. Everyone has been speaking their native language for years and years and it's hard to change. Habits of how you move your mouth are really hard to change, and so don't expect miracles. Sometimes people see advertisements from software or courses that say, get rid of your accent in only five lessons or something. It's not going to happen.

5:58There are no miracles. So what can you do? Start by setting a reasonable goal. Choose one or two sounds that are difficult for you to pronounce. Then, work to improve these sounds. When you have improved, study other sounds. Progress might be slow for you, but don't give up! Next week, we will give you examples of exercises I'm John Russell.