Q: Why don't people lose their accents even after they moved away and lived elsewhere for years?

A: Keith Kluender, a professor of psychology at UW-Madison, responded by describing a more dramatic "move" that requires learning a second language.

People are motivated to learn a new language "to get things accomplished, such as asking directions and ordering food, which can get done without losing one's accent," he said.

Once you get good enough "to function well in a new culture, there is less motivation to adapt your accent to match the locals."

Beyond motivation, Kluender said, "It is very difficult to learn some new sounds in a second language because of the ways they are similar to sounds from the first language."

Because English has many more vowels than Spanish, "Spanish speakers have difficulty learning English vowels that are similar to, but not the same as, their original Spanish vowels. For example, they have difficulty hearing and producing the difference between 'ih' (as in bit) and 'ee' (as in beet), two vowels that are similar but different in English. That's why a native Spanish speakers may seem to be saying 'the dog beat the man.'"

The ability to distinguish sounds starts before birth, Kluender said, and so "native speakers" must also be "native listeners."

The sounds of the mother tongue shape the developing brain, tuning it so it can notice key distinctions but ignore useless ones.

If we wish to speak another language like a native, those ignored distinctions may be exactly what we need to learn.

Produced in cooperation with University Communications

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