How to sound like a native speaker?

WARNING:
Is that what you really want? To sound like a native speaker of English? Then be prepared to live as two different persons in one. Relax, I’m not talking about schizophrenia, I’m talking about creating a new identity that can coexist with the old one peacefully. You will have to be comfortable speaking with two very different voices and using two radically different modes of expression. Sounding like a native speaker in a second language is far more complex than most people think. Learners seeking to attain that level also need to understand and be extensively exposed to the native speakers’ common patterns for social practice.

Before we start, let’s make one thing clear…
There is a misconception that speaking like a native speaker is the ultimate attainment in second or foreign language learning. That is simply inaccurate. Being a native speaker of English (or any other language) doesn’t necessarily make you proficient in the language. There are many Americans, British, Australians or Canadians who never had proper education or are illiterate, and so they have serious limitations in communicating effectively at work or in society. Therefore, I believe it would be more accurate to say that the ultimate attainment in second language learning is reaching  the level of a proficient native speaker of the language.

Okay then, so how to sound like a native speaker?
The native-likeness in English consists of 5 layers as follows:

1. How sounds are physiologically produced in isolation. (Phonetics)
2. How these sounds interact with each other and sometimes transform in natural speech. (phonetics and phonology)
3. How these sounds are produced to communicate information, ideas and thoughts. (Phonology)
4. How these sounds are produced to express feelings, emotions, attitude, mood etc (Phonology)
5. How the body communicates during the production of these sounds (body language)

1-How sounds are physiologically produced in isolation. (Phonetics)

That’s phonetics. We use our speech organs or “articulators” (tongue, lips, teeth etc) to make a sound. Each language has a unique sound system that requires different mouth movements (manner and place of articulation). Because you have been speaking your language since you were born, your organs or muscles are programmed to move in a certain way. In order to sound like a native speaker of English, you would have to program or reprogram your muscles to perform new movements, in other words, to build a new muscle memory. Some English sounds might not even exist in your language, and similarly, some sounds in your language might not be found in English. You want to say the word

verb

but since you don’t have vowel [er] (ɝ) in your language or you don’t usually begin a word with /w/ or you don’t finish the word with a voiced consonant like /b/, people keep hearing it as

warp

Now you’re looking at three problems in one word. So the first step is to train your mouth to produce the English sounds.

2-How these sounds interact with each other and sometimes transform in natural speech (phonetics and phonology).

Knowing how to produce the English sounds in isolation is one thing, knowing how to produce them all as one stream of connected sounds is another. To sound like a native speaker, you would also have to first learn what happens to these sounds when they “marry” each other. A very good example of that is the pronunciation of the letter [t] in English. The letter [t] is not always pronounced as /t/ as it depends on the sounds that either come before or after it. There are so many different scenarios and exceptions. It’s very important for you to know how these sounds interact with each other to be able to both speak and understand native English. Let’s look at [t] in a few examples:

1. [ton]: The [t] in this word is at the beginning, therefore, it’s strong (aspirated), so you should press the tongue tip against the gum very hard so that the air pressure builds up inside your mouth and then bursts out at the time of release. The IPA symbol for that sound is /tʰ/, though, for the sake of simplicity, I personally never use the little /ʰ/ in my phonetic transcriptions.
2. [not]: The [t] here is still audible (you can hear it) but not as clearly as in [ton]. The IPA symbol is just /t/.
3. [not cool]: The [t] here CAN be pronounced as it is pronounced in the previous example [not] but in the natural spoken English, it’s either omitted (deleted) or turned into a glottal stop. The IPA of the glottal stop is similar to a question mark without the dot on the bottom /ʔ/. Basically the glottal stop is a sound (a consonant) that is produced by sharply cutting off the airflow deep in the throat (in the vocal tract). As a result of changing the /t/ to a glottal stop in this example, you’ll hear something like [knock cool].
4. [not eat]: The [t] in [not] in this example will transform into a tap very similar to a quick [d] sound or even a Spanish [r] without the trill. The IPA of this sound is /t̬/. We make that sound by quickly tapping the tip of the tongue against the ridge (the bony part of the gum behind the upper teeth).
5. [not in here]: In this case, we have a schwa sound followed by /n/ in [in]. As [in] is just a preposition and therefore not often stressed (except in phrasal verbs and in special cases), we almost delete the schwa sound as it is preceded by the stressed syllable [not]. That’s why the schwa sound in words like [separable] [camera] [chocolate] is often omitted, so you end up hearing [seprable] [camra] and [choclate]. Okay. Back to the [t] before [in]. This [t] is then nasalized because of the /n/. What happens is that as the speaker makes a transition from /t/ into /n/, the tongue tip keeps its contact with the gum resulting in nasalizing the /t/ in the process.
6. [not late]: While /t/ can be nasalized before /n/, it can be lateralized before /l/. The tongue tip doesn’t move during the transition from /t/ to /l/.

How these sounds are produced to communicate information, ideas and thoughts (Phonology).

That’s is a branch of intonation (phonology). It is done through two processes:

1. Word and sentence stress: Using tensity, loudness or time, we highlight a particular sound for the listener to recognize a particular word (that’s word stress) or we highlight a number of key sounds for the listener to easily comprehend the general or central message of the sentence (that’s sentence stress). For example, the word [tomatoe] comprises 3 sounds, now I want the listener to recognize the word easily and effortlessly, so I make sure to stress the letter [a] a little more so that the listener won’t hear it as [someone’s toe]. By doing that, I’m clearing up the potential for confusion. If I say [the tomatoes are good but the cucumbers are seriously awesome!], I still stress [a] in [tomatoes] and the 1-syllable word [good], but I stress the [cu] in [cucumbers], [se] in [seriously] and [awe] in [awesome] a lot more as those represent the main thought of the sentence.
2. Chunking and pausing: Using pauses, we deliver the information to the listener in packages (packaged information) so that he or she won’t be overwhelmed or confused by the amount of information they receive. For example: [I’m gonna tell you what happened with me today at work.]Breathe.[My boss walks up to my desk with a big smile on his face.]Breathe.[he goes.]Breathe.[What are you up tonight?]Breathe. etc. This way, the listener knows where you start and where you finish and can process the information more easily.

How these sounds are produced to express feelings, emotions, attitude, mood etc (Phonology).

That’s where you start hearing about tone, melody, music and intonation. That is the most difficult aspect of second language learning and that is the one that requires creating a new identity as learners here have to really start breathing and living the language not just speak it. We are no longer talking about articulating correctly, or communicating or passing information from A to B, but rather about using your voice to fulfill a more personal need. What do humans need? We all need to make people love us, believe us, trust us, employ us, help us etc. That requires intonation.

How the body communicates during the production of these sounds (body language).

That is the final layer of native-likeness in English. Many undermine the role of body language in second language acquisition. If you take the time to observe the body language of English native speakers, you’ll realize that it is quite different from yours. If you look closer, you’ll notice that oftentimes the body language of some people helps convey their temperament, and most importantly acts as a visual manifestation of rhythm and intonation. Watch, for example, the hand gestures (twisting and other movements) and head wobbling (head shaking) of Indians, they speak tons about the speakers’ mood and emotional state. Take a look at some Japanese speakers especially when they are trying to tell a story or explain a point of view, you’ll see a head nod consistently occurring at the end of a thought or sentence. By watching the body language of native speakers, you’ll start to visualize the language better and learn how to utilize your body more effectively during speech.