2. 2
First impressions
Pronunciation is definitely the biggest thing that people notice when
you are speaking English.You can live without advanced
vocabulary, you can use simple words to say what you want to say.
You can use ‘simple’grammar.But there is no such thing as
"simple pronunciation ». If the pronunciation is poor , neither
Grammar nor vocabulary would help you !
Here is an anecdote about this:
After coming back from a vacation in the USA, a friend of mine
said:"Whenever I spoke to a person in America, they kept asking
me What? What? I would repeat my sentence again and again.
Finally they would say Ah-ha! and then say my sentence, using
exactly my words! It was very humiliating. I knew my words
and grammar were good, but nobody would understand me, just
because of my Pronunciation.
4. Should pronunciation be taught
and acquired early? Or is it
something we can worry about
later?
WHEN TO ACQUIRE ?
4
5. In the absence of a good model and without
guidance, the learner will perceive, produce
and internalize sounds of the target language
based on the native language sounds.
For this reason, if not given emphasis at the
very beginning, pronunciation will never be
acquired well.
5
6. When accuracy is neglected, the result
will be fossilized pronunciation errors.
Since pronunciation habits are formed
early, it seems obvious that it is at that
point that the development of a good
pronunciation should be emphasized.
6
7. HOW TO ACQUIRE?
• Naturally: as a result of exposure and
interaction in the environment of the target
language and its culture.
• By teaching: providing a good pronunciation
model (instructors with native-like pronunciation,
recordings, etc.), explaining differences, using
phonetic symbols to make pronunciation visible,
limited peer interaction, effective error
correction, exercising accurate pronunciation.
7
8. SPELLING INTERFERENCE
The written language is a significant source
of input to EFL students.
The higher the spelling inconsistency is, the
more negative the influence on
pronunciation will be. The English spelling
does not serve as a guide to pronunciation.
On the contrary, it can often be
misleading. For instance:
8
9. SPELLING VS. PRONUNCIATION
“s” has got five different ways
of pronunciation:
1. /s/ as in basic, past, say
2. /z/ as in because, rose
3. /ᶘ/ as in sugar, sure
4. /ᶘ/ as in casual, usually, television
5. /mute/ as in aisle, island
9
10. The frustration of the EFL learner never ends:
1. bough / baʊ /
2. cough / k fɒ /
3. dough / dəʊ/
4. rough / r fʌ /
5. through / θruː /
6. hiccough / h k pˈ ɪ ʌ /
10
11. 11
“Comfortable” Intelligibility
• Convey message
•“Positive face”
•Expectations on the listener
• Understand message
•Tolerance
•Expectations on the speaker
Foreign Speaker Native listener
‘threshold level’ acceptability accessibility
interactiointeractio
nn
12. 12
1. Features of pronunciation
2. Criteria for selection
teachability intelligibility integration
differences with L2 perception - production
institutional requirements time availability
13. 13
Biological
Factors affecting pronunciation learning
Psycho-sociological Background
•Age
•Closeness to L1
acquisition
•Phonetic coding
ability
•Motivation
•Attitude
•View of the foreign
country
• prior instruction
• opportunities for
practice outside the
classroom
•amount of exposure
14. 14
TasksTasks
contextualised
integrated within
the language class
Requirements
different
learning styles
communicative learner-centred
SequenceSequence
Presentation –Practice – Remedial work
Description
and analysis
Listening
discrimination
Controlled and
Guided practice
Communicative
Tasks
Identification
of feature:
awareness raising
15. 15
What makes Pronunciation difficult to teach?
•The lack of adequate language teacher training in
pronunciation, with the result that teachers may lack
knowledge and confidence.
•Teachers are often left without clear guidelines and are
confronted with contradictory purposes and practices for
pronunciation instruction ,no systematic way of deciding
what, when and how to teach it (Derwing & Foote,2011).
•A common problem is deciding whether to focus on
segmentals or on suprasegmentals, and to what extent?
•A related challenge is how to address production and
perception.
16. Conclusion
• It all brings us to the overall conclusions that:
1. Pronunciation is more important than it seems
to be and has always been acknowledged that
it is a fundamental part of one’s oral ability in
the target language.
2. The students need intensive contact with good
pronunciation models in the beginning of the
learning process.
3. The goal of teaching pronunciation is to enable
students to become “not perfect pronouncers
of English but intelligible , communicative,
confident users of spoken English for whatever
purposes they need. 16
