Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s a common English expression, and one that fits well here. The question is, do you have to know more words to enhance your pronunciation in English, or will your inability to pronounce American English properly inhibit your ability to grow your English vocabulary?
The answer is a little of both, but to be 100% clear, you should never allow any accent deficit or anything else get in your way of learning new words. In fact, research suggests that the more words you learn, the better you’ll pronounce words you already knew. You want to engage your mind in every way possible in a new language, because it’s not simple pronunciation or simple memorization of words that makes you fluent.
By the same token, you don’t want to focus so narrowly on growing your vocabulary that you stop grooming the way you speak to help reduce your accent. If you know the most scholarly words in the world, it won’t matter if no one can understand what you’re saying. If your word stress is off, or you’ve not taken the time to understand intonation and inflection of various English vocabulary words in different parts of speech, they’ll do you a lot less good.
The idea is not to “wow” people with your extensive vocabulary; make sure you’re working on your English pronunciation as part of expanding your vocabulary, and when you do this, you will notice that your language skills in English will build on one another, and eventually, your study of English pronunciation online will enhance your vocabulary, and visa versa.
If you feel like pronunciation is holding back a beautiful vocabulary you’ve worked a long time to achieve, consider an online accent reduction course like the FREE trial offered right here by PronunciationPro.com! It’s one week, no strings attached, and you’ll learn all about the techniques that give you the tools and discipline to activate your American English vocabulary! 🙂
