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Final Essay
Ting Lu
Samantha Kirby
ENGL106
11/7/2016
Native Speakers as a Pronunciation Model
Nowadays, English as an international common language has caused an upsurge of
studying it in a world range. This unparalleled spread was represented in three concentric
circle by Kachru. (Kachru3) We could see that except of the inner circle, the population of
people as English as an additional language is huge and still increasing. Not surprising,
increasing users from different countries or areas created lots of various accents. Therefore, a
controversy about non-native speakers pronunciation appeared. A linguist named Sung
searched some non-native speakers opinion and made a statement. According to his article
What do non-native speakers say about who they want to sound like, many scholars believes
that in order to preserve culture identity, it is not necessary for non-native speakers to sound
native as long as they are understandable. Also, for a concept that native speakers are good
pronunciation model, many scholars put forward few arguments. As far as I am concerned, I
highly agree with him and I will argue all of his opinions below.
In order to understand the situation of non-native speakers, Sung made a survey about
non-native speakers goal of learning English and model of pronunciation with 15 Hong
Kong-born students. The result is that most of them desire to sound like native speakers but a
few people are just satisfied by clear and understandable pronunciation. Moreover, they all
have their own pronunciation models. But for which particular speaker as a model, they have
totally different view. As same as a non-native speaker, my request to myself is just to speak
English clear and fluent. I dont care about who am I sound like as long as people could

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understand me.
After further understanding of students idea, Sung realized that although they want to
sound native, but they dont take native speakers as a pronunciation model because some
native are difficult to understand. Students also give some example: David Beckham,
American actors and Harry Potter. The accent of these people are considered to be unclearly
and weird. Besides, two students also mentioned that they dont want to speak English with
American accent because their bad impression of American culture. From those examples, we
could see that sometimes native speakers are not easy to fully understand and will have
negative effect for non-native speakers. Similar concept also expressed in Graddols article
named Why global English may mean the end of English as a Foreign Language. Graddol
believes that native-speaker models have lots of problems which made them less useful such
as their culture baggage, expensive teaching process and their unqualified teaching
abilities(Graddol114). His opinion supports better for Sungs conclusion and I agree with
them. Many native speakers will say something that too native to understand, such as some
jokes that only native people could catch or some slang that need higher English abilities.
Take my own experience as an example, in my apartment office, there are some local staffs
and an Asian staff. In general, local people should speak English better than a non-native
speaker. But for me, I would prefer to talk about my problems or questions with the Asian
staff. Not because we all come from Asian, but in my opinion, his pronunciation is more clear
and standard to understand. When I talk to the natives, I feel confused about what they said
because they are too vague and fast. So sometimes native speakers are not a good model just
like some Chinese cant speak mandarin well.
In the process, students also give some pronunciation models that come from Hong
Kong. For example, news reporters on TVB Pearl, former chief secretary of Hong Kong and
former chief justice of Hong Kong. These non-native speakers are proficient of English and

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prominent figures in Hong Kong. Therefore, Sung thinks that when we finding a
pronunciation model, we could search some local speakers with high education and less
accent. Local non-native speakers are not as same as native speakers that have strong accent
which learned from their hometown. They accepted high education with standard English
pronunciation and avoid for accent on purpose. Therefore, their pronunciation is clearer than
a part of native speakers. I also have a pronunciation model which is a local non-native
speaker, Yang Lan. She is a famous presenter, media, philanthropist in China. And also she is
a member of the tenth, eleventh, twelve session of the CPPCC National Committee. She
graduated from Columbia University School of international and public affairs and got a
Master position of international affairs. I have already watched her speech on TED before we
watched on class. At that time, I amazed by her pronunciation and I took her as my model. I
watch her programs from a young age and I am not only adoring about her pronunciation,
also her temperament and conversation skill. Needless to say, she is a good pronunciation
model. So local non-native speakers are good choice for taking as a pronunciation model.
Expect local non-native speakers, students also provide some example of foreign nonnative speakers such as Heidi Klum and Hugo Becker. They are not native speakers but their
pronunciation is clearer than some Americans with strong accent. This is the same with local
non-native speakers. Some of their first languages have same origination with English, so
they are easier to learn. Like I said, the Asian staff in my apartment office could be a
pronunciation model. Furthermore, I followed a YouTuber named Michelle Phan for a long
time. She comes from Vietnam but has a great pronunciation. As a result, many foreign
speakers are good model because they have appeal pronunciation.
For the question that what they would like to sound like, many students have a particular
group. However, two students think that it is impossible to use one English pronunciation
model all the time. So they always listen to different speakers pronunciation to improve their

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English. In many foreign countries, English pronunciation are different from person to
person. The most important reason is students pronunciation determined by their teachers
pronunciation. For instance, before I studied in high school, all my English teachers are
speaking British English, and all our audio materials are British English too. But in high
school and then, I started contact American English. So there was a period of time I dont
have a particular English group. But now, I feel American English is more comfortable.
Therefore, I speak American English and take people who speak that kind of English as a
pronunciation model.
After this survey, Sung made a conclusion that the wish of sounding native and the
model of pronunciation have no relationship. Many native speakers are not regard as a good
pronunciation model because they have strong accent and other culture problems. However,
some non-native speakers whatever local or foreign people could be good model because
they are clear, understandable and acceptable. People learning English should choose their
own pronunciation model according to their favor. His points of view are as same as I think.
Everything has two sides. We couldnt say native speakers pronunciation is totally great for
English learners, although they are native people. They all have different background, their
educational level is different, they come from different areas. It is not workable if we regard a
random native speaker as a model. Another conclusion that people should follow their favor
to select is the best answer for the question about English learners pronunciation model. We
couldnt just relay on a speakers pronunciation to decide as a model. For me, sometime I just
like the tone or style of someone, and his or her pronunciation is clear and understandable. In
other words, have you ever experienced that when someone is talking, you feel very anxious
or impatient. If you have same experience, you will know what am I saying. If someone have
a standard pronunciation, but I feel uncomfortable for his or her tone that very slow or
exaggerated, I dont think I will be willing to learning pronunciation with he or she. In

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conclusion, choosing a pronunciation model is not an easy thing. It is better to select a person
that you like with standard and understandable pronunciation, whatever he or she come from.
Works Cited
Braj B. Kachru (1992). World Englishes: approaches, issues and resources. Language
Teaching, 25, pp 1-14 doi:10.1017/S0261444800006583
Chit Cheung Matthew Sung (2013). I would like to sound like Heidi Klum: What do nonnative speakers say about who they want to sound like?. English Today, 29, pp 17-21
doi:10.1017/ S0266078413000102
David Graddol (2006). Why global English may mean the end of English as a Foreign
Language. English Next, pp 110-117.