For VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

Learning a new language is a long, difficult process.

This process can become easier if you set goals. Goals help guide language learners and give them reasons to continue studying a language.

However, if you set unreasonable goals, then you will probably become discouraged.

Many English learners set difficult, even unreasonable goals. For example, here at VOA Learning English, we often read emails with comments like: "My goal is to sound like a native speaker..." or "My goal is to lose my accent."

The problem with the goal of sounding like a native speaker is that it is not a reasonable goal for many people.

When English learners begin studying English after a certain age, they are not able to sound exactly like a native English speaker. That is the opinion of Eli Hinkel, a professor at Seattle Pacific University.

She says that people who have not reached puberty still have enough muscle and brain plasticity to allow their brain to control their mouth muscles. Puberty is the period of life when a child becomes an adult.

After your physical growth has stopped, the brain loses some of its ability to change the way it controls the muscles of the mouth. This is what results in an accent, according to Hinkel.

In other words, having an accent is a natural part of the aging process of the brain.

Just because you might not sound like a native speaker does not mean that you should give up trying to improve your pronunciation.

And just because you have an accent does not mean that your language skills are poor.

Hinkel suggested that English learners should not be too disheartened about their accents.

She adds that there are even benefits to having an accent.

Eli Hinkel is a native Russian speaker. But she works as a professor in a Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) program. She believes her accent helps her when she is teaching students.

Another teacher says sounding like a native speaker is not necessary.

Marla Yoshida is a Teaching English as a Foreign Language Teacher at the University of California, Irvine. She says that improving your pronunciation is definitely possible – if you choose a reasonable goal.

So, what can English learners do to improve their pronunciation?

Marla Yoshida says that, like when you decide to diet, you are more likely to have success if you set reasonable goals. She suggests working on specific areas of pronunciation that you can improve, instead of trying to sound like a native speaker.

Yoshida added that English learners should understand that improving their pronunciation can take a long time. She said that learners should not be tricked by people who claim to be able to help people get rid of their accents:

So, what can you do?

Start by setting a reasonable goal. Choose one or two sounds that are difficult for you to pronounce. Then, work to improve those sounds. When you have improved, study other sounds. Progress might be slow for you, but don't give up!

Next week, we will give you examples of exercises that you can do to start improving your pronunciation.

I'm John Russell.

discouraged – adj. less determined, hopeful, or confident

accent – n. a way of pronouncing words that occurs among the people in a particular region or country

puberty – n. the period of life when a person's sexual organs mature and he or she becomes able to have children

plasticity – n. the quality of being able to be made into different shapes

pronunciation – n. the way in which a word or name is pronounced

Credit to https://learningenglish.voanews.com