Pronunciation: Drawing a Strict Line between Models and Goals

Abstract

Some non-native speakers of English presuppose that they are “the best” users of English simply because they have certain voice qualifications like voice softness and smoothness to imitate native speakers. That they are biased in favor of pronunciation leads them to think that pronouncing well is the single decisive criterion for someone to be identified as a “good” speaker of English. The limits of this phenomenon have sometimes transcended individuals’ pretensions when some teachers and lecturers have belittled learners and users of language by adopting this issue so extremely. The current paper aims at proving theoretically and practically that these pretensions are entirely true and that the actual situation of the English language is moving towards pronunciation goals (acceptability) rather than pronunciation models (accuracy). This paves the way that someone’s acceptable pronunciation suffices to label him/her as a non-native speaker of English.