Foreign accents  At the moment I’m writing an essay on the
acquisition of foreign pronunciation. There seems to be a
widespread belief that people who start learning a language at
an early age are more likely to speak it with a native accent,
while those who learn languages as adults tend to speak them
with foreign accents. The essay is exploring whether this is
true, and what factors contribute to the acquisition of native-
like pronunciation.  While there’s plenty of evidence indicating
that the younger you start learning a language, the more native-
like your pronunciation will be, there are exceptions to this –
some adults manage to acquire native-like pronunciation in
foreign languages, while not all children do so. Other factors
that seem important include the length of time you’ve spent in a
country where the language is spoken, the amount of exposure you
get to the language, how much you use your first language,
whether you have a talent for oral mimicry, and how important it
is for you to speak the lan