If you've ever had to take a foreign language class, you may have noticed that often the word for "language" is the same as the word for "tongue." In fact, even the English word comes from the Latin lingua, which is used for the body part as well. The roots of these words bring to mind the actual physical process of speaking, with all of its tongue-twisting sounds. Although not all languages are spoken, the vast majority of them are, and it's the oral part that usually trips up students the most.
No matter what level the class is, many people are self-conscious about their pronunciation in foreign languages. Even English, with countless borrowed words and slang, can be confusing to read aloud. This is natural, especially when something is pronounced completely different from how it looks. The more you practice words, the easier they are to memorize, though—it isn't all about being able to spell them, or use them in a sentence correctly. A lot of students are cautious about trying to improve their speaking at all—and it hurts their language abilities.
Part of this is because of language elitism, which is still very present in America today. People see "bad English" as a mark of less education, and often less intelligence. Even just having a foreign accent, or speaking a dialect likeAfrican-American Vernacular English, can make people dismissive of others around them. Because of this, it can be daunting to try out unfamiliar words, because your audience could be critical of how you say them. Despite this, though, there's no shame in trying your best at pronouncing something. It's better for your learning than not saying anything at all, or trailing off uncertainly in the middle of the word. Jake Parker's mantra of "Finished, Not Perfect" is a good saying to keep in mind: it's better to complete something than it is to leave it unfinished because there are mistakes.
A lot of the time, students visibly struggle with reading in class. They speak quietly and very slowly, apologize to the professor if they mispronounce something, or stop in the middle of a sentence to sound something out so they get it right. But these hyper-corrections aren't necessary. Only very advanced language courses are critical of students' pronunciation, so there's no need to feel bad about the sounds not coming out of your mouth quite right. And unless you have an extremely strict professor, they aren't going to demand an apology for you not rolling your Spanish r's like a native speaker, or for not knowing how to say crèmebruléein standard English. Like any physical exercise, you have to build muscle memory, and that takes time. Until then, most people will understand what you mean even with errors, and will accept that languages are incredibly complicated to learn. Repeating this process is the only way to actually get better at it.
If students spent less time worrying about perfection and more about building their skills, they would be able to improve their speaking ability in foreign languages, and in English as well. It's important to stop the stigma of how we say things, and to start teaching language learners to speak confidently, because practice really does make perfect.
