Let's get LOUD (& PROUD!)

The vicious cycle of fear and failing to be understood

Often my students assume their pronunciation is much worse than it actually is. They are full of embarrassment, and even shame, surrounding how they speak English.

And I can empathize - there are few experiences in which I feel more vulnerable than when I am forced to pronounce a word that I’ve only read and never heard. Even in your first language it can be a painful exposure to mispronounce a word!

This fear not only prevents us from taking the risks necessary to learn and improve, but it can also make it much more likely that we won’t be understood; it’s a vicious cycle.

When we feel self-conscious while speaking, we might fall into several unhelpful habits:

-We speak more quietly

-We speak more quickly

-We cover our mouth

-We open our mouth less

-We smile ¹

-We laugh

These habits are trying to protect us but they actually just hurt us in our efforts to be understood.

If one of my students is feeling very nervous about speaking, he or she may do a combination of these habits. Then when I don’t understand what they have said, they might think “Oh god - my pronunciation is so BAD!” But their pronunciation wasn’t to blame at all - it was their nervous habits that made their speech less clear. I believe this to be true because it is consistently harder to understand my students when they are doing presentations than when they are speaking casually to me.

This means that if you are feeling fearful that the anglophone Starbucks barista won’t understand your order, there is a much higher chance of that happening. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

How can you battle your insecurity?

Remind yourself that:

MAYBE IT’S NOT YOUR PRONUNCIATION

Native English speakers often don’t understand OTHER native English speakers simply because of their volume, unclear speech, a noisy environment, a bad phone connection, etc. There are many other factors involved in being heard and understood other than pronunciation, so you mustn’t immediately blame your pronunciation when someone fails to understand you.

MISUNDERSTANDING IS NORMAL

It’s a common experience for anyone (native English speakers included) to have to repeat themselves or ask someone to repeat themselves - this is not a horrible failure - this is normal and to be expected. Try not to count it as evidence of your “bad pronunciation”.

YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!

Lots of native English speakers only speak one language (like me)! You are skillful and impressive for speaking two or more languages and should feel proud of that every day!

MISTAKES ARE VALUABLE

Mistakes are how we learn. If someone doesn’t understand what you said - what can you learn from this experience? It may feel hard or unnatural, but you can choose to interpret it positively (“This is helpful!”), instead of negatively (“This is awful!”).

So let’s make 2022 the year of being loud and proud!

Sound good???

1. Smiling is lovely as a social habit, but if you are in the process of learning English pronunciation, smiling might prevent your lips from forming the correct mouth position for clear pronunciation of a sound.