53 – The accommodation question
My talks and workshops always involve explanations and demonstrations of fast spontaneous speech, and the consequent variability of sound shapes that occur in this stream of speech. I always emphasise the fact that I am talking about the teaching and learning of listening, not pronunciation, and that the goals for mastery of the two skills are different.
A question, or a point that is often put to me in my talks and workshops is this: Surely people accommodate to each other, so that when people speak they adjust the speed and clarity of their speech according to the ability levels of the person, or people, who are listening to them. And (the question continues) as most of the interactions in English in the world are between ELF speakers, who have learned English as a second language, they will be better at accommodating than L1 English speakers. The underlying thinking that these questions represent seems to me to be ‘Surely we need not bother with this messy stuff that you are presenting – we can rely on accommodation and what we currently do in listening to smooth the way’.
Hey ho!
This brings up loads of things.
[1] This accommodation view adopts (in my view) an over-optimistic view of (a) the range of circumstances in which language interactions take place and (b) the niceness of speakers of English – they are not always willing to be of helpful, or able to be helpful (c) the fact that language interactions often take place under pressure when people don’t have time, or the will, to be nice.
[2] I concede that often interactions can take place where accommodation is possible – speakers facing each other, with at least one of them having the skill to moderate their speed and accent to match the abilities of the person listening to them. But equally often language use either (a) occurs in non-reciprocal circumstance (radio, television, public announcements) where speakers do not know who their listeners are, and cannot adjust to their levels of understanding or (b) in pressure situations, or unfamiliar situations, where urgency required of the task precludes the time required to accommodate.
[3] Perhaps sympathetic accommodation occurs more often between L2 speakers of English, but my experience (though limited) of witnessing such interactions, or at least of analysing recordings of people using ELF, is that the same fast speeds and streamlining effects, and consequent multiple sound shapes often occur. In short, ELF speech can also be messy!
I would like to believe in a world where all interactions in English involve cooperative speakers and hearers who accommodate to each others abilities and needs, and who therefore speak with the clarity and intelligibility that is modelled in textbooks and in the classroom. But I know I don’t live in such a world, and I believe that pretending that we do shortchanges our learners. It gives us yet another excuse to ignore the realities of the speech signal.
