34 MYTH 1 Once you have been speaking a second language for years, it’s too late to change your prounciation. Tracey Derwing and Murray J. Munro University of Alberta and Simon Fraser University In the Real World David Nguyen, originally from Vietnam, moved to Canada in 1980, a time when many Vietnamese people were fleeing their country. David was an engineer and, although it took a long time and a lot of hard work, his credentials were eventually recognized, and he was hired in a large engineering firm. His professional skills were very strong, but his employers often complained that they had difficulty understanding him, despite the fact that he had taken several ESL courses when he first arrived and had a good grasp of both spoken and written English. The problem, as they put it, was his “heavy accent.” Sixteen years after his arrival in Canada, David enrolled in a Clear Speaking course offered two evenings a week for twelve weeks at a local college. Along with his classmates, he received instruction intended to Pronunciation Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching Linda Grant http://www.press.umich.edu/4584330/pronunciation_myths Michigan ELT, 2014 Copyright (c) 2014. University of Michigan Press. All Rights Reserved.