Learning English

“When I start to realise that people don't understand me, I lost my confidence after it.” - Anna, Ukraine

“When I speak to people, I'm a bit nervous that they don't understand me. What I mean, what I would say.” Clément, France

All episodes 
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Watch Georgie's video about being understood

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Introduction

Many people worry that someone won’t understand their pronunciation or accent. Learn from experts about this topic and get tips on how to help other people understand you.

With Jennifer Jenkins, Emeritus Professor of Global Englishes, University of Southampton.

Reflect 

Discuss in pairs/groups or make self-reflections.

Before listening: 

• Do you worry that someone won’t understand your pronunciation when you speak English?
• What accent do you want to have when you speak English?

After listening: 

• Is there someone from your country who you think speaks English well? What do you like about their accent?
• Do you know anyone with a different first language to you who is also learning English? Could you practice with them to learn which parts of your pronunciation are confusing?

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Vocabulary 

assumption
something that you believe is true without question or proof

lingua franca
a common language used by people with different first language, such as English used in a workplace where people come from lots of different countries

received pronunciation 
a particular British accent spoken by some people in the UK  

intelligible
able to be understood    

native accent
an accent which sounds like someone who grew up speaking English, such as an American accent, or a British accent

(accent) accommodation
changing the way you speak to make sure you are understood by the person you are speaking to

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Transcript 

Georgie
Have you ever worried about your accent?

Clément
When I speak to people, I'm a bit nervous that they don't understand me. What I mean, what I would say.

Jennifer Jenkins
If you could wake up tomorrow morning with any English accent in the world, what would you like to wake up with?

Anna
When I start to realise that people don't understand me, I lost my confidence after it.

Jennifer Jenkins
Instead of teaching so-called 'correct native English' to learners, it would be better for learners if they learnt how to adjust.

Hanan
Today, we're going to talk about how to make sure people understand you in English.

Georgie
Hello and welcome to Beating Speaking Anxiety. Our special series to help you fight your fears of speaking English. I'm Georgie.

Hanan
And I am Hanan. You can find a transcript of this episode to help you learn on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Georgie
One part of learning another language is learning pronunciation, and often it's one of the hardest parts of speaking.

Anna
Hello, my name is Anna. I'm from Ukraine.

Hanan
For Anna, getting the sounds of words right in English is very difficult and frustrating.

Anna
So sometimes, even if I'm not sure about the correct pronunciation of this word I just avoid, avoid it. And because of it, my language like sounds simple.

Georgie
Anna says she avoids some words because she's not sure about her pronunciation. She's experienced problems in the past getting people to understand her, even when she thinks what she's saying is clear.

Anna
In a pub when I want to order like some cocktail and I said, "May I have neat whiskey", but waiters don't understand. I totally sure that I said it correct. Why people don't understand?

Georgie
In Anna's story, the waiter didn't understand her order. She was asking for a neat whiskey - that's without any ice or water. But the waiter thought she was saying 'need'.

Hanan
Hmm. Misunderstandings like this have made Anna more embarrassed and anxious when speaking English.

Anna
When I start to realise that people don't understand me, I lost my confidence after it.

Georgie
Anna feels like her pronunciation - her accent - stops her from having successful conversations in English, even when she knows exactly what she wants to say. And fears about accents can make lots of learners nervous to speak.

Jennifer Jenkins
When I started the work, it was taken as, um, an assumption that every learner would be aiming to acquire a native-like English accent.

Hanan
This is Jennifer Jenkins from the University of Southampton. Jennifer studies accents and English as a Lingua Franca. This means people with lots of different first languages using English as a common language, for example in workplaces around the world.

Georgie
Jennifer says that in the past, many learners and teachers believed they should try to make their accent sound like a native British person – an accent called Received Pronunciation.

Jennifer Jenkins
But there are many, many other accents, native English accents, so it's already a query – do you really want to sound like, I think it's less than 3% of native English speakers have a Received Pronunciation accent, the sort of accent more or less like mine, and the rest don't. The rest have other accents.

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Watch an explainer video

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Hanan
For Jennifer, the most important thing when communicating in a learned language, particularly when they're speaking to someone else who's not a native speaker, is that everyone understands one another, something Jennifer calls 'intelligibility'.

Jennifer Jenkins
I started to say intelligibility was the key thing and therefore it didn't matter what accent you had. I mean, if you're German, your accent would sound German, if you're Japanese, your accent would sound Japanese, and so on. As long as you made sure that your accent was intelligible to the person you were speaking to.

Georgie
Jennifer says that it doesn't matter what your accent sounds like, as long as it's intelligible. That means that people can understand it. She also thinks it's important people celebrate their accents. After all, accents are a part of who we are and where we come from.

Jennifer Jenkins
One of the questions I often asked in my research was, "If you could wake up tomorrow morning with any English accent in the world, any accent, and that would be your accent, what would you like to wake up with?" They all said, "I would love to wake up tomorrow with native English accent". Later in the same interview, I always asked them about would they like to lose their accent? And once they started to think about losing... I mean, I can still remember one Italian, um, she was a teacher of English. "I am Italian, I am proud of being Italian. I do not want to lose my Italian identity", um, and therefore, when it came to it, she wanted to keep her Italian accent in her English.

Georgie
Of course, as we heard from Anna at the start of the programme, there are times when people don't understand a particular accent, which can be frustrating. Jennifer says that you can avoid these misunderstandings by practising something called 'accommodation'…

Jennifer Jenkins
… which is basically just adjusting the way you speak to make yourself understood by the person you're speaking to. So you work out quickly what sort of thing in your accent they don't understand, and then you try not to do those things.

Hanan
How you accommodate will depend on who you are speaking to and whether the first language is similar to yours.

Jennifer Jenkins
In some first languages, um, there is no /w/ sound, so the /v/ is used – north, south, east, vest. Um, in other languages they, you have a /v/, and they have a /w/, and they wouldn't understand if you changed that to a /v/, so you have to work it out. And so I've always said that, um, instead of teaching so-called 'correct native English', uh, to learners, it would be better for learners if they learnt how to adjust their accent, they got familiar with lots of other accents of English, and then learnt what they would need to do when they were speaking to someone with one of those accents.

Georgie
Accommodating your accent for each person you speak to sounds very complicated and like a lot of hard work, but there are some things you can do to make things easier. Try to practise with people who speak a different first language to you. That way you'll notice the parts of your accent that are difficult to understand and you can adapt it. What's important to understand is that the vast majority of English speakers around the world are non-native, all bringing their own identities and accents to the language. And most of all, be proud of your accent. Try your best not to be flustered when you're misunderstood. Find other ways to explain what you mean and try to notice what it was about your pronunciation that caused confusion.

Hanan
Thanks for listening to this episode of Beating Speaking Anxiety. To learn more about speaking anxiety, head to our website where Georgie has made videos for each of the speaking fears we talk about in this series. You will hear more advice and see some tips in action with real learners. Use the link in the notes for this episode, or visit bblearningenglish.com.

Georgie
Next time we'll be talking about humour in English and what to do when you don't get the joke. Goodbye for now.

Hanan
Bye bye.

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