What is the difference between accent and pronunciation?

Most of students want two things when they come to Native Language Coaches. They say ¨I want to improve my listening and my speaking.¨

When I ask them what do they want to improve in their speaking I always get the same answer; fluency and pronunciation. This is why most of my students want a native teacher. They feel they will improve their pronunciation by working with a native teacher, and many feel that British English is ¨better¨ than American English.

Well, I am going to give away a little secret, one is not ¨better¨ than the other. I say that, and I technically speak British English. So why do I say that?

Well the difference between American and British English is not pronunciation, but accent. But what is the difference between accent and pronunciation? The answer is, very little, but it is important to understand.

Paisa Vs. Costeño

I was recently talking with my students about the difference between accent and pronunciation. When I asked them to explain what ´accent´ is and then explain what ´pronunciation´ is, most described the same thing; the way a person makes the sounds of their language. Ok, most students connected accent with the place a person is from or lives, but most couldn´t identify the difference between the two.

The difference between a Paisa accent and a Costeño accent is similar to the difference between a Scottish accent and an English accent. Do Costeños really speak fast or does it sound fast because they don´t pronounce some of the consonants in the words?

So what is the difference between accent and pronunciation? Basically, accent is the way make the sounds of words based on where we live or learned a language. Pronunciation is a way of sounding the words so that other people understand us, or to express detailed information that words alone cannot express.

Many people in Colombia laugh at Alvaro Uribe´s pronunciation. Most of my students make the joke that they don´t want to talk like him. In fact, the ex-presidents pronunciation is very good. He is easy to understand, he communicates well and he uses all of the pronunciation techniques of a native speaker. Yes he has a strong accent, but we can understand him and that is the key to good pronunciation.

To find out more I consulted the University of Cambridge and a few other reliable sources about pronunciation and I found some very interesting information.



What is ¨accent¨?

An accent, simply, is the way we make the sounds of the words we say. A great example of this is the ´th´ sound in Ireland. The most obvious difference between an English accent and an Irish accent is that, in Ireland, the people pronounce ´th´ like ´t´ or ´d´. So the sentence, ¨There are three trees over there¨, sounds like ¨Der are tree trees over der¨. This is very obvious to a native English speaker that it is an accent and not bad pronunciation. Likewise, the letter ´t´ in England is pronounced very differently to the letter ´t´ in the U.S.A.. There is no correct way to pronounce it.

This is where most students make the mistake. They ask me what is the correct way to pronounce the letters. This of course is important in English but even more important is the pronunciation within a sentence.

What is ´prounciation´?

I am not going to say that the sounds of the letters are not important, just that melody and rhythm in a sentence is equally important and is something that most English students don´t focus on. So what is melody?
Read my next blog to learn more.

I will write my next blog next week so come back to learn more or visit my English page
NATIVE Language Coaches