Summary: Second-language learners notice pronunciation mistakes made by peers but tend to overrate their own accent, which may hinder improvement.
Source: LMU Munich
Learners of a foreign language often recognize typical pronunciation errors in others but continue to make the same mistakes themselves. A new study from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) Munich reveals that many learners perceive their own pronunciation as better than that of their peers, even when objective measures say otherwise.
Pronunciation is one of the most persistent challenges in language learning. Specific pronunciation errors recur depending on a learner’s native language: for example, native German speakers frequently struggle with the initial English “th,” while native English speakers often have difficulty producing the German front rounded vowel “ü.” These repeated errors are familiar enough that they can be the source of amusement—yet that amusement highlights a paradox: learners easily spot such mistakes in others but have difficulty correcting the same faults in their own speech.
LMU researchers Eva Reinisch and Nikola Eger, together with Holger Mitterer from the University of Malta, investigated one factor that helps explain this paradox. “Learners tend to overestimate the quality of their own pronunciation,” Reinisch explains. “They commonly judge their English as superior to the English spoken by fellow students, even though they make similar pronunciation errors.” This inflated self-assessment reduces motivation to continue refining pronunciation and contributes to persistent patterns of error.
In the study, 24 female native speakers of German recorded 60 short English sentences, such as “The family bought a house,” “The jug is on the shelf,” and “They heard a funny noise.” Several weeks later, the same participants returned to the lab and listened to recordings from four different learners: three other participants and one recording from themselves. They rated the accentedness and overall speech quality of each sentence. To prevent participants from recognizing their own voices, the researchers digitally altered the recordings to make the female voices sound male. This manipulation was critical: if participants had recognized their own productions, their ratings would likely have been biased.
“We were surprised that the experiment so clearly pointed to the significance of overestimation of one’s own abilities in this context,” says Reinisch.
The results were unequivocal: participants rated their own altered recordings as closer to the native target than they rated recordings produced by other learners, despite being unaware that the recordings were their own. Several mechanisms may account for this effect. Familiarity with one’s own voice makes it easier to understand, and greater ease of comprehension can be mistaken for superior pronunciation. The mere exposure effect—our tendency to prefer stimuli we have encountered frequently—may also cause a bias in favor of our own vocal productions. Both effects can combine to create an inflated perception of one’s accent quality.
These findings emphasize the value of external, objective feedback in language instruction. If learners believe their pronunciation is already adequate, they are less likely to invest the time and effort needed to refine difficult sound contrasts. Without honest, external evaluation, learners risk “fossilization,” a term used to describe the stabilization of non-native pronunciation patterns that remain resistant to change. Recognizing deficits through external feedback can motivate targeted practice and prevent long-term entrenchment of errors.
The researchers are exploring technological solutions that provide reliable external feedback, such as apps that analyze speech and point out specific pronunciation targets. Tools like these could help learners identify and correct persistent errors regardless of how they subjectively rate their own speech.
Source:
LMU Munich
Media Contacts:
Dr. Kathrin Bilgeri – LMU Munich
Image Source:
The image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access
“My English sounds better than yours: Second-language learners perceive their own accent as better than that of their peers.” Holger Mitterer, Nikola Anna Eger, Eva Reinisch. PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227643.
Abstract
My English sounds better than yours: Second-language learners perceive their own accent as better than that of their peers
Second-language learners are often aware of the typical pronunciation errors associated with their native language, yet frequently continue to make those errors themselves. The authors hypothesized that repeated exposure to one’s own productions may lead learners to perceive their own accent as closer to the target than the accents of other learners. To test this, 24 female native German speakers recorded 60 sentences in English. Later, participants rated recordings including three peers and one of their own productions that had been digitally altered to sound male, preventing recognition. The participants consistently rated their altered recordings as closer to native speech than those of other learners. These results suggest that objective external feedback is important for continuing improvement in second-language pronunciation and for reducing the risk of fossilized pronunciation patterns.