Non-native speakers are studying how to communicate and be understood
By MAGGIE GALEHOUSE Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle Oct. 12, 2010, 5:51PM
If you’re Sofia Vergara, the sexy Colombian actress who appears on television’s Modern Family, a thick accent is part of your glamorous allure. It may even be played for comic effect.
But for non-native speakers who don’t star in Emmy-winning sitcoms — or look like Sofia Vergara — a heavy accent isn’t always an asset.
“I tell my clients, ‘Your accent can be charming or challenging,’ ” says Roberta Stanwood, a Houston speech pathologist with Latin American, Chinese, Indian, Russian, Turkish and Romanian clients. “If a person has to struggle to figure out what you’re saying, your accent is challenging.”
Speech pathologists in Texas and across the country are spending more time than ever teaching the sounds and rhythms of American English. Clients spend months working on pronunciation and intonation. The goal is not to lose one’s accent entirely – which is next to impossible – but to speak clearly and to be understood.
“Accent modification is definitely a growing area of interest with professionals,” says Lana Sovie, a speech pathologist with Speech Specialists of San Antonio. Sovie’s office sees private clients and also works with large companies.
Stanwood, too, has a private practice and works closely with a handful of corporations, including energy giant ConocoPhillips.
Corporations with international employees often seek out and pay for speech pathologists — and for good reason.
A recent study published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that listeners distrust people with heavy accents. Researchers asked subjects to listen to short English phrases in a variety of different accents and then to rate the truthfulness of each utterance. The research showed that listeners tended to trust native speakers and distrust non-native speakers — and that the heavier the accent, the less the listener trusted what was being said.
Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association reports an uptick in the amount of time speech-language pathologists in clinic and outpatient settings spend on accent modification. Last year, on average, these professionals spent 5.7 percent of their time working with accents, up from 3.7 percent in 2007.
Customer service is one field where non-native speakers seek help, says Janet Brown, director of health-care services in speech language pathology for the association.
“In that industry,” Brown says, “if you’ve got someone who’s really upset about something already, adding another barrier to that interaction is only going to frustrate the person more.”
The help clients seek can be startlingly specific: from the correct pronunciation of medical terms and certain co-workers’ names to how to talk sports on Monday mornings.
In Standard American English, Stanwood says, certain sounds confound non-native speakers. Short vowel sounds – the “i” of “it” and the “a” of “cat” – are particularly difficult.
Spanish speakers use a lot of long vowel sounds, Stanwood says, but imposing long vowel sounds on some English words changes their meaning entirely: “fit” becomes “feet,” “hit” becomes “heat,” and so on.
The most common vowel sound in English is not attached to a specific letter, Stanwood says. The “schwa” is a neutral sound that occurs everywhere: it’s the “uh” in the final syllable of Roberta, or salmon.
Mastering these short vowel sounds and pronouncing the endings of words are great steps toward speaking clear American English. Another biggie: learning to pronounce “th.” Pushing the tongue up against the teeth to create this sound is very strange for non-native speakers, Stanwood says. Mastering these short vowel sounds and pronouncing the endings of words are great steps toward speaking clear American English. Another biggie: learning to pronounce “th.” Pushing the tongue up against the teeth to create this sound is very strange for non-native speakers, Stanwood says.
Of course, clear communication goes well beyond pronunciation.
Sovie often works with clients on voice projection, vocal intensity and body language.
“If you’re from a country where eye contact with a superior is unacceptable,” Sovie explains, “you have to understand that in the U.S. you could be perceived as being inappropriate or lacking in confidence.”
Stanwood spends time on figurative language, demystifying phrases such as “barge in,” “boondoggle,” and “let’s play it by ear.”
Many clients, even those with doctorates in math and science fields, feel inadequate because they need help with their speech, Stanwood says. They feel like they just haven’t tried hard enough.
Stanwood doesn’t see it that way and makes sure she tells them so.
“I tell them that they’re gifted,” she says. After all, they’re already living and working in a country without the benefit of their native language.
As American society has grown more international, some experts see an increased tolerance of non-native speakers.
“These days, we are not so insular in our expectation that everyone will talk exactly the way we do,” says ASHA’s Brown. “Besides, business opportunities are growing internationally. Being bilingual is an asset.”