Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language； but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do their own languages is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problems of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill—one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself.
I think, even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent. tend to neglect the branch of study concerned with speaking in their practical teaching. So・ the first point I want to make here is that the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to the teaching of English pronunciation. There should be occasions when other aspects of English• such as grammar or spelling* are allowed for the moment to take second place.
Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher： the first, knowledge； the second, technique.
It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speecht and of what we call general phonetic theory. But the first and most important part of a language teacher s technique is his own performance, his ability to demonstrate the spoken language, in every detail of articulation (发音)as well as in fluent speaking, so that the student s talent capacity for imitation is given the fullest scope and encouragement.
According to the author, why do people generally not speak foreign languages very much better than their own languages?