I came to USA not young at all and as almost the last one among a half of or about 25 classmates from China and I only had one year class in English after jumping in a fast class because the teacher in the regular class was a major in Russian. During my Ph.D. time in USA, I found a special class ETS777, which has a English professor one-to-one to correct my pronunciation. I had 3 different professors there for three years and one professor doing the same when I was on my second teaching position. After two years of teaching and practicing about 3 class hours per day without needing much preparation in my expertise anyway, I realized with a surprise that I can almost talk anything without much efforts. I read that you had a few interesting articles in this topic, I would say that the personality is also a very important factor in speaking English well. I am a person very outgoing and talkative, which gives me a significant advantage in learning to speak in English as well as mingling with people. My experience tells me that it is not impossible even for a person not so young. Practicing more can correct one's pronunciation if only one makes enough effort. (Sorry, I often can not type in Chinese nowadays, I do not know if it is related to the attack to my computer now and then. Sometimes, it would be okay if I restart my computer to reactivate google pinyin input method. Sometimes, I do not bother to do so as it may not work at all. ) |
