Hello Renata

There isn't a simple answer to your question but obviously the role of English as a lingua franca amongst more than 1,500m non-native speakers has had an extraordinary effect on what might be the optimum goal for learners. This shift towards intelligibility as a goal as opposed to a (near–)native speaker accent is reflected in the explicit move made by the Council of Europe in 2018 in the Companion Volume to the CEFR away from native-speakerness and towards intelligibility. This new emphasis on intelligibility is also found in the descriptors for speaking and pronunciation of the major ELT exam boards (Cambridge, Trinity College London, IELTS, etc). None of these exam boards reference proximity to a native-speaker accent in their exam performance scales.

Does this then mean that a goal based on a native-speaker prestige accent is to be abandoned? Not necessarily. NNS English language teachers may feel drawn to competence at a (near–)native level as this can translate into increased confidence in the classroom. Some students may wish to sound like NS celebrities. Some might want to identify as fully as possible with one or other NS culture (UK, US, Australia, etc). This would be especially true for learners who aim to go and live in one or other inner-circle country.

Of course, the two goals, international intelligibility and a NS accent are usually presented as in opposition to each other, but this is not the case in my opinion, and in the article 'From being intelligible to being themselves: pronunciation for today', I show how the two goals are part of the same journey. You can download this free at: https://englishglobalcom.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/met_28.3_from-being-intelligible.pdf

Lastly, you may like to keep in mind that native speaker accents are not the Everest of learning the pronunciation of English, and in fact, where the language is being used for international communication amongst predominantly non-native speakers, the NS accent is often problematic. David Graddol makes specific reference to this in English Next, a monograph he was commissioned to do by the British Council. The implication here, for me at least, is that intelligibility is a better goal for most learners, with a NS accent being a suitable goal only for certain learners.

Yes, I believe it is important for L2 learners to achieve native-like pronunciation. To my knowledge, for mastering TL pronunciation, it would be helpful to compare principles of articulation in both L1 and L2, focusing on their differences, and then practice it for attaining native-like pronunciation.

A foreign learner does not need to acquire a perfect native-speaker-like pronunciation; but he/she DOES need to acquire the ability to recognise and understand a variety of native-speaker accents. When I first started as a teacher (which is long ago now) I was shocked to find that many Europeans were under the (totally ridiculous) impression that everybody in the English-speaking world either speaks or WANTS to speak Daniel Jonesian RP. Learners must accustom themselves to the fact that all speakers of English have marked regional and/or social accents, of which RP is just one among the many; and that they need not expect every native speaker they meet to use the pronunciation model they found in their textbooks.

Totally agree with Derrick about the need for learners to be able to deal with a variety of accents. We're failing them as a profession if they only thing they hear are one or two prestige native-speaker accents. That goes nowhere near preparing them for the real world. The only thing I would add is that they also need to hear a lot of NNS accents in English, especially those they are most likely to come in contact with in their early use of English outside the classroom. Basically, I no longer make any difference between NS and NNS accents. They are all accents, and some are more intelligible than others on first contact, but the more you are exposed to different accents, the better you become at dealing with accents that are totally new to you.

This is very interesting now because sts need exposing to different varieties of English but they also might perhaps need hearing nns pronunciation for the awareness.

That's exactly it, Renata. As I say, the easiest thing is to stop thinking in terms of NS and NNS accents and just think in terms of accents. Then decide which are the accents your learners are most likely to come in to contact with once they start using English outside the classroom. Then expose them to these accents in the classroom with you there to help them when they get stuck. After that, encourage them to go on the internet and listen to more people who speak with these accents.

If you want to read some more on accents, you could go to my website on my blog 'An A–Z of pronunciation'. This is available at:

https://englishglobalcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/07/a-is-for-accent/

For a more thorough approach to all this you could buy 'Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca' (Walker, OUP, 2010). This can be bought as an ebook at:

https://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/teacher_development/oxford_handbooks_for_language_teachers/9780194658850?cc=global&selLanguage=en

Yes, it does make sense and I will check these resources - Huge Thanks for your replies, opinions, recommendations!!! You have All broaden my horizons! But I also sometimes wonder what would I personally need to exactly do and how long would that take me to gain standard English with elements of RP for myself. Has anyone was ever working on accomplishing this for any of your students?

The function of language is clear communiucation, so understanding each other. Mastering perfect RP isn't necessarily a requirement to achieve this. English as a world language currently has so many influences and is changing faster than ever before. Influences from other cultures and languages wil be bigger and more dominant. I would focus on understanding and making your students understood, whatever it takes to do that.

Renata, this is an interesting topic especially as it focuses more on phonetic/phonological aspects. I had the same interest in NNS competences focusing on pragmatic competence. NNS are expected to be competent but using NS competence to gauge their competence is problematic. Albert Balvers points to that. A great number of NNS speak many accents far off of RP and we are still able to communicate and understand each other. Some NNS; the example of Africa have no RP in their immediate environment as the teachers who teach them English are also NNS. I guess it then depends on which NNS you would like to study if for example these NNS have NS as a teacher, should their pronunciation be RP?

Alessia Cogo is one the people who has done a lot of the leading research into the pragamatics of ELF communications, and as with pronunciation, it very quickly becomes obvious that NS rules are irrelevant, and that communicative efficiency is the driving force behind NNS–NNS interactions.

And regarding your final question, Alice, the answer is 'no'. Less than 3% of the UK population has an RP accent, and most of these people do not work in ELT. The very vast majority of ELT professionals – i.e all Ts from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc., and from the regions of the UK – do not have an RP accent, and it would be absurd for them to teach towards one.