Understand foreigner’s better: copy their accent!

A friend of mine said he was going to take his knees to the hospital. He may have to stay with his knees over the weekend. Huh? I asked, "Which knee is it? Both of them?" He said he only has "one knees". What? I then realized that he was actually saying "niece", not "knees". We had a little chuckle about it. His Eastern European accent just got in the way.

Yes, misunderstandings caused by accents can be pretty funny, but it can be a serious business. I'm sure you know that speaking with a good accent can help you to be understood. However, believe it or not, it may even work the other way around.

That's right, if you mimic a 'foreign' accent, you may find it easier to understand the 'foreigners'.

Researchers at Manchester University in Britain and Radboud University in the Netherlands reported on an intriguing experiment^[1] . They divided students into several groups. All groups heard recordings of 100 sentences spoken in an extremely strong and unfamiliar foreign accent.

Group 1 only listened.

Group 2 repeated what they heard in their own accent.

Group 3 repeated what they heard while trying to mimic the unfamiliar accent.

The group that tried to imitate the unfamiliar accent understood what was said much more than the other groups.

Yes, when you copy someone else's accent, it can be easier to understand them. One of the authors commented, "When listening to someone who has a really strong accent, if you talked to them in their accent, you would understand [them] better."^[2]

These results aren't shocking. Previous research found that listening comprehension slows right down when hearing an unfamiliar accent.^[3] So it's reasonable to wonder if practicing that accent yourself might help you to understand more fully. And it seems that yes, it does.

So if you are learning another language, it may be worth spending time learning the accent. It may improve your listening comprehension considerably. Then you can understand more when practicing by listening to music, podcasts, movies, and television in your target language.

Perhaps if I had tried this, I might have understood that my friend never had any problem with his knees.

[1] P Adank, P Hagoort, H Bekkering, 2010 – "Imitation Improves Language Comprehension", Psychological Science https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0956797610389192

[2] Dr Adank as quoted in a press release entitled, "Imitating accents makes them easier to understand" https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=6494 Retrieved January 2020

[3] Adank, Evans, StuartSmith, & Scott, 2009; Floccia, Goslin, Girard, & Konopczynski, 2006

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