Theories of Teaching Pronunciation in Current TEFL / TESOL Practices

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 931.

Pronunciation in the pastoccupied a central position in theories of oral language proficiency. But it was largely identified with accurate pronunciation of isolated sounds or words. The most neglected aspect of the teaching of pronunciation was the relationship between phoneme articulation and other features of connected speech. Traditional classroom techniques included the use of a phonetic alphabet (transcription), transcription practice, recognition/discrimination tasks, focused production tasks, tongue twisters, games, and the like.

When the Communicative Approachto language teaching began to take over in the mid- late - 1970s, most of the above-mentioned techniques and materials for teaching pronunciation at the segmental level were rejected on the grounds as being incompatible with teaching language as communication. Pronunciation has come to be regardedas of limited importance in a communicatively-oriented curriculum.Most of the efforts were directed to teaching supra-segmental features of the language -rhythm, stress and intonation, because they have the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of the learner's English [Celce-Murcia et al 1996:10].

Todaypronunciation instruction is moving away from the segmental/supra-segmental debate and toward a more balanced view [Morley 1994]. This view recognizes that both an inability to distinguish sounds that carry a high functional load, e.g. list— least, and an inability to distinguish supra-segmental features (such as intonation and stress differences) can have a negative impact on the oral communication – and the listening comprehension abilities – of normative speakers of English.

Today's pronunciation curriculum thus seeks to identify the most important aspects of both the segmentals and supra-segmentals, and integrate them appropriately in the teaching process that meets the needs of any given group of learners [Pennington, Richards 1986; Gilbert 1994; Pennington 1996].

The ability to produce English with an English-like pattern of stress and rhythm involves stress-timing (the placement of stress on selected syllables), which in turn requires speakers to take shortcuts in how they pronounce words. Natural-sounding pronunciation in conversational English is achieved through blends and omissions of sounds to accommodate its stress-timed rhythmic pattern [Clark, Clarkl977]. Syllables or words which are articulated precisely are those high in information content, while those which are weakened, shortened, or dropped are predictable and can be guessed from context [Giegerich 1992].

In every language, characteristic intonation contours carry both referential and affective meaning. In their referential function, intonation contours provide an interpretation for a sentence by indicating which part of the information is viewed as new versus known, salient versus less salient, or topic versus comment. Intonation and stress are highly context-dependent, so that the patterns of stress and pitch that characterize isolated words or phrases are typically modified when these words or phrases occur in the context of longer utterances.

In sum, the acquisition of pronunciation of a foreign language involves learning how to produce a wide range of complex and subtle distinctions which relate sound to meaning at several different levels. Articulatory, interactional, and cognitive processes are equally involved.

Prospective EFL teachers could be recommended the following sources of reference for teaching contemporary English pronunciation:

1. Gimson A.C. Gimson's Pronunciation of English [Gimson 2001] which presents comprehensive and accessible standard description of spoken English.

2. Celce-Murcia M., Brinton D., Goodwin J. Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. [Celce-Murcia et al 1996] – this book gives a valuable linguistic and didactic model for teaching North American pronunciation.

3. Pennington M. Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach [Pennington 1996] - this is a comprehensive manual on the theory of English pronunciation.

4. Jenkins, Jennifer. The Phonology of English as an International language [Jenkins 2000] – the author gives an international perspective on teaching the English pronunciation, she advocates intelligibility as the key concept in the field of English as an international language.