Don’t you ever take English pronunciation for granted

One of the things that really infuriates me is this Spanish era of “fake” bilingualism. It turns out that nowadays we can become bilingual overnight.

 It takes at least six years of constant exposure for a child to learn their mother-tongue, let alone they are within the most productive years of their lives as far as learning a new language is concerned. So, how come almost all schools are called bilingual? How come people are achieving English certificates in such a short time? 
One answer to this last question surely is that people are being forced to achieve them in order to maintain or obtain a job.  

Studies have shown that the younger the learner, the more they can adopt pronunciations and recreate new sounds. And, children around the age of three or four can learn through play because their minds aren´t yet overwhelmed by facts and information that needs to be stored and assessed, which is something that happens as we grow older.

 A study conducted by a director of the cognitive neuroscience laboratory for language and child development at Dartmouth College (Hanover) has demonstrated that after the teen years, the brain changes and makes it extremely challenging for an adult to learn a foreign language. This doesn’t mean that they can’t learn it; just that they won’t do so the same way as a child because the mechanisms that help language learning are not the same as they are at ages 2-5.

Having said this, I encourage you, dear teacher, to be true to yourself and never take English for granted. There is a great ignorance about the importance of teaching a language properly. We can´t afford to teach English wrongly. Otherwise our students will be learning a different language. English is not like German or French where there are pronunciation rules. You learn them, and then you can pronounce all the words rightly and read properly. I don´t want to discourage you, my friend. On the contrary, I want to raise awareness of the commitment and responsibility we have towards our pupils. I know, it may be hard and exhausting. I know this education system is wrong, but let us not permit it prejudices our pupils´ English learning. And to avoid that WE are paramount.