The Power of Exaggeration in Second Language Acquisition

How to express yourself in a foreign language

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! The most common question I am asked across any language that someone might be working on is, “How do I improve my accent to speak more like a native?” and that is what we will address in this post. My methods may be a bit different than others, and I have written about this before, I’ll link those down below, but it does all work. The biggest issue is that most people give up before they have the chance to see any meaningful results.

Working on your accent is not fun. It’s worse than doing vocabulary flashcards and memorizing grammar structures. Most people would rather consume than create and accent work demands creation. If you aren’t willing to make a fool out of yourself when you are practicing at home, you will make a fool out of yourself when you get out and finally have the chance to test your metal with native speakers. Here are some things you can do to ensure you are practicing in a way that sets you up for success when it’s game time.

Mastering new sounds in new languages

When you are starting out, the chances that you will have to master some new sounds are high. When you are doing this, you will have to start somewhere and most people tend to whisper or speak softer whenever they are dealing with words they struggle to pronounce. I understand this instinct, I did it too, but it will not serve you. If anything, you should do the opposite and over exaggerate and speak louder when you are learning to pronounce new words and use new sounds in a new language.

It will feel awkward at first, but you have to start somewhere. After some time you will find that it is not actually awkward and that no one actually cares and that all of your fear was drastically overblown. Once you realize people care more about communicating at all than they care about communicating perfectly, you will hopefully have as much grace for yourself as strangers have for you. Once you build up the ability to make the sounds, it is time to trim back.

It is easier to cut a diamond than to create one. Most of your energy will go into learning to make the sound, mastering it will be far easier. Once you know how to make the sound you can focus entirely on getting it to sound natural. Over time each new word you learn where that sound is used will act as an opportunity for you to really zero in and ensure you are getting it as close to native sounding as possible.

Ideally you have someone with whom you can practice these things, but if that is not the case then you can always practice with yourself. Practice saying things in the mirror and speak loud and proud. If you aren’t even willing to make mistakes in front of yourself you will struggle for a long time to speak to anyone else. Still, if you are worried about embarrassing yourself in front of yourself, you can use technology to practice.

Change your phone to your target language and use the voice to text application to practice your pronunciation. In all likelihood, even if your accent isn’t perfect, if the robot can understand you other people will be able to as well. Fortunately, in this case, there is literally not a single person who will be able to judge you. Take all the time you need with this exercise, but at one point or another you will have to expand to more challenging arenas.

Start with the robot, then practice in the mirror, then speak with anyone. It sounds like a jump, but when you experience precisely just how confidence can compound you will be less afraid of making mistakes. From there it’s all about leveling up and becoming more descriptive. In other words, it’s time to up your vocabulary to ensure you are constantly stimulating the growth of your speech abilities. For more on that, check out this article:

Becoming more descriptive

Learning to be more descriptive involves learning to find the right word for the right situation. As is the case in English, there are better and worse ways to express the same sentiments in any language. At first simply getting your message across should be your goal, but you should not stop there. Your goal should be making it to the point where you can express any sentiment to any person at any moment. For help with that, check out this article:

Accuracy is vital in language for a multitude of reasons not the least of which is ensuring you are able to express yourself, your thoughts, hopes, and beliefs in a precise manner. One of the reasons I focus so heavily on vocabulary when I am working with clients is because it can be paralyzingly frustrating to feel like you cannot properly express yourself. The only way to get through this is by expanding your pool of vocabulary words.

Building confidence is difficult, but it will compound as you progress. That said, spending multiple days or weeks struggling to master a certain word or phrase can be demoralizing. During those times there is one thing you can do that will help you overcome this. Best of all, it rarely feels like actual work as it usually works in conjunction with whatever comprehensible input you happen to be working with at the time. You can even change the stimulus to something you feel would be most beneficial to you specifically.

Building confidence through mimicry

Building your confidence with mimicry will have almost immediate effects. This is especially true if you have been struggling with your accent. Copying the things that native speakers do is extremely effective and even one week of working on this can show results. Choosing who you want to copy is likely the most important part of this method, but it is also one of the least consequential aspects.

Since you are going to be working on your target language for at least a year, you will have the opportunity to work with a myriad of different creators and orators to ensure you are not only able to speak well, but understand just about anyone who speaks your target language. Even if you start on YouTube with your speed set to .5 or .75, at least you will have started. Eventually you will be able to work to normal speed, but what matters most is consistently returning even if you feel less than competent getting started.

You won’t know what you are capable of if you never take a leap and try new and difficult things. Try things you aren’t sure you can do. If you fail, that’s okay because you are fighting to progress. If you succeed, it’s time to keep pushing and find out just how far you can take things. Avoid always consuming content from the same people.

The more accents, tempos, and vocabulary you learn to work with the better off you will be when you are tasked with speaking to native speakers. For more tips on mastering mimicry, check out this article:

Conclusion

Exaggeration is a win 99% of the time when you are learning a new language. Whether you are using it as an excuse to pick up more precise and descriptive language or a strategy to master new sounds that do not exist in your native language, it is a tool that can serve you. There is more to mastering your accent than simply exaggeration and mimicry, but having a place to start is vital. Over time you will find new ways to implement these practices, but challenging yourself is imperative for growth.

As we discuss often around here, creating is vital in second language acquisition. Speaking and practicing with written language will help you in accelerating and enhancing your language learning process, so start having conversations as early on as possible. It will be difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So go do some difficult things and become great.

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