Accent Acquisition
Why is it so difficult to lose your foreign accent?
Image by: Cottonbro Studio
By Hanyu Tales (6th February 2025)
A funny accent is one of the main sources of anxiety for EFL learners according to this paper. However, you do not have to look far to find non-native speakers with near native-level proficiencies in a foreign language, who do not seem to have even slightly shaken off the accent their mother tongue left them with. In this article, we will discuss why it seems that adult foreign language learners struggle to acquire a native-sounding accent.
Critical Period Hypothesis
While age does not have as big of an impact on foreign language aspirations as some suggest, research does show that developing a native-like accent is the one area that does get noticeably tougher as you get older. This is known as the Critical Period Hypothesis, and there is a wealth of research talking about how after a certain age, attaining a native-like accent is a tall order. This is because of permanent changes in the brain that occur when you are a teenager that make it harder (but not impossible) to effectively master native-like sounds while completely hiding the influence of your mother tongue, as explained in this article:
“It is proposed that it is the nature of the human brain, not its nurture, that is essentially involved here-specifically, that the onset of cerebral dominance, which seems to occur around the age of twelve, inhibits the ability of a person to master the sound patterns of a second language without an impinging foreign accent.”
It therefore seems that students should have realistic expectations about what results the accent improvement method they are following will bring. This has been fairly well-established for a long time, as this this paper from 1987 states: “It is widely accepted that older learners have difficulty learning how to speak a foreign language without an accent.”
The purpose of sharing this information is not to demotivate you or suggest you will never be able to get rid of your accent, but rather to offer a reminder that if you are comparing your pronunciation progress to that of a child, you should probably stop doing that. How Do Actors Succeed?
While matching a native speaker’s accent may be tougher as an adult than as a child, actors do it regularly. If we consider less specific language learning skills, such as reading and speaking, we tend to find that almost anything we do in the language benefits such skills at least indirectly. However, developing a native-sounding accent is something that requires direct practice, and is not always completely connected to other aspects of language acquisition. If improving our accent is a priority, it warrants sacrificing time spent on general language proficiency to work specifically on the types of exercises actors use, such as drilling the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and working with experienced (and probably very expensive) accent coaches. Actors are not interested in reaching C2 or HSK6 level in a language, they are interested in sounding like they have reached C2 or HSK6 level.
So What Do I Do?
Accent training is a huge field with theory that differs greatly depending on the dialect and region. We are sadly not able to offer you a complete guide to mastering all accents in all languages, but here is an idea of the kind of roadmap you could follow:
- Master the fundamentals of pronunciation: Follow a comprehensive course which focuses on the specifics how to use your mouth muscles when producing the sounds of the language. Make sure it is packed with theory, drills, and examples. A great (but not free) option for Chinese is Rita’s Chinese Academy.
- Use shadowing: Find an audio or video clip of someone speaking with your desired accent, listen to it many times, then try to mimic the speaker. First, repeat after a slight delay, then eventually speak at the same time as the speaker, focusing on matching their intonation and rhythm.
Image by: Cottonbro Studio
- Listen to content from that region: Do your best to do all of your listening practice with content created by people from the region where your desired accent comes from.
- Consider a coach: Actors who achieve convincing accents are almost certainly using an accent coach. If you can afford it and the accent is enough of a priority for you, it may be a worthwhile investment.
Realistic Expectations
A convincing accent is not an impossibility for adult learners, but it is unlikely you will completely lose your foreign accent just by becoming more proficient in the language in general—it requires targeted practice for most adults. Our recommendation would be to get the fundamentals of pronunciation down as soon as possible, and then to leave direct accent training as a potential side-mission for when you have reached at least an upper-intermediate level in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Remember: being understood and understanding others is what truly shows proficiency.