On 2022-05-07 14:07:53 +1200, Greg Ewing wrote: > On 7/05/22 12:27 pm, Stefan Ram wrote: > > So, one might actually be able to learn the pronunciation > > of a foreign language from text in a book better than from > > an audio tape (or an audio file or a video with sound)! > > Such books would certainly help, but I don't think there's any > substitute for actually hearing the sounds if you want to be > able to understand the spoken language.
I think "learning to understand the spoken language" and "learning to
speak without a (foreign) accent" are two different things. I agree that
the former needs exposure to actual people talking (preferably in real
life, where people talk fast, slur endings, omit words, hem and haw,
talk over each other ...). For learning to speak without an accent, just
listening (or talking) to native speakers is probably not sufficient for
the reasons Stefan mentioned plus another one: Outside of a classroom
people usually won't correct your mistakes unless you say something
truly incomprehensible or unintentionally funny. However I don't think a
book is sufficient either: Most people are probably even worse at
observing the position of their various mouth parts while speaking than
at listening, so without feedback from a native speaker (preferably a
trained voice coach) they can't really tell whether they are doing it
right.
hp
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