Introduction:
1.1 The begining of the English Language
This part of the work we talk about the begining of the history of the english language. We
think that very essential discuss the questions that it formed the origin of the particular
language. According to Crane, yeager and Whitman ( An introduction to Linguistics) “ The
history of every language is unique, because each language is inherently bound to the
thinking, nature, and spirit of a people, all of which are continuously altered by the twists
and turns of events”.
David Crystal ( 1997, p 123) says :
No community has ever been found to lack spoken language, but only
A minority of language have ever been written down. Likewise, the
Vast majority of human beings learn to speak, but it is only in recent
Years that some of these people have learned to write.
The English language has a history about your origin. Schultz (2008, p 1) points out that
the history of the english language is complex it begins with the celtics. The language is
divided in : old english (500-1100 A.D) ; middle english (1100 – 1500) and modern
english ( since 1500). Old english was named anglo-saxon, it was a very difficult language,
because your pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar was so hard to understand. In the
Middle english had the influence of french language in the english. In the modern english ,
the english language suffered the standard of the language with the arising of the press in
1475 and the development of the city of London that it became the politic, social and
economic centre.
Recents Historics moments explain the importance of the english language in the world. In
first place of the great economic power of the England in 18,19 and 20 centuries . In second
place , the power politic-militar of the united states before of the second war of the world.
Today, approximately 341 million people speak English as a native language and a further
267 million speak it as a second language in over 104 countries incluind the UK, Ireland,
USA,Canada, Australia, etc.
1.2. PRONUNCIATION
During all the time of the classes we talked about pronunciation and the necessity that the
teachers have to improve their pronunciation and the way of teaching pronunciation to their
students. Studies about teaching pronunciation argues that a consideration of learners
pronunciation errors and of how these can inhibit sucessful communication is a useful basis

on which to assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the classroom (p 11).
According to author the teachers of pronunciation need:
- a good grounding in theoretical knowledge
- practical classroom skills
- acess to good ideas for classroom activities
Maniruzzaman ( 2010,p1) says that pronunciation isan integrated and integral part of
second/ foreign language learning since it directly affects learners communicative
competence as well as performance to a substantial extent. The author describes the
teaching english pronunciation in many countries (Bangladesh, china, mexico). According
to Dalton (2002), in Mexico , pronunciation is described as “ the Cinderella of language
teaching”,that means an often low level of emphasis is placed on this very important
language skill.
Schütz (2008,p 1) believes that the control about the spoken language begins with the oral
understanding , and it begins with the recognition of the words that exist in the oral
production. To Hammerly (1982,p. 26) :
“ speech is a complete, complex, changing, arbitrary system of primarily oral
symbols learned and used for communication within the cultural framework
of a linguistic community .”
Dalton (2002) says that we are comfortable teaching, reading, writing, listening and to a
degree, general oral skills, but when it comes to pronunciation we often lack the basic
knowledge of articulatory phonetics (not difficult to acquire) to offer our students anything
more than rudimentary ( and often unhelpful) advice such as, it sounds like this: uuuh.
Maniruzzaman (2010, p 3) argues the usefulness of teaching second/foreign language
pronunciation is a widely debated issue in the language teaching world.
The author points out Purcell and Suter (1980, p 286) emphasized that pronunciation
practice in the class has little efect on the learner’s pronunciation skills and, moreover ‘ that
the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a matter substantially
beyond the contrl of educators’. For the other side, Penington(1989)questions the validity
of Purcell and Suter’s findings, and states that there is no firm basis for asserting
categorically that pronunciation is not teachable or it is not worth spending time on
teaching pronunciation.
Others authors as Hence and Gilbert(1995,p1) believes that the skills of listening
comprehension and pronunciation are interdependent, and contends ‘ if they (learners)
cannot hear well , they are cut off from language. If they (learners) cannot be understood
easily, they are cut off from conversation with native speakers”.
During the course we argued about the importance of the teachinf of pronunciation in our
classes, because our students are not prepared to know as working with text and news

words. Nooteboom (1983 suggests that speech production is affected by speech
perception,and stresses the need of pronunciation in both listening and speaking. Wong
(1987) points out that even when the non-native speakers’ vocabulary and grammar are
excellent, if theisr pronunciation falls below a certain threshold level , they are unable to
communicate efficiently and effectively.
Maniruzzaman (2010) says that pronunciation is not an optional extra for the language
learner, any more than grammar, vocabulary or any other aspect of language is. If a leaner’s
general aim is to talk intelligibly to others in another language, a reasonable pronunciation
in important.
Schütz (2008,02) says that the different languages can have two codes of communications
totally different, or different human connection as results of differents cultures.
Therefore, the English Language offers many possibilities of teaching, but the
pronunciation is very important and it is necessary to the comprehension of the language.
The teachers need to teach their students to recognize the difference between two
languages, the sounds and pronunciation, because this point of view can help the students
to understand the meaning of some words and sentences.
Varonis and Gass (1982) examine the factors affecting listening comprehension in native
speakers of English exposed to L2 accents, and conclude that grammar and pronunciation
interact to influence intelligibility.
The non native speakers that speaks only one language believe that the sounds of your
language is the unique universal basic sound of the human beigns language. This idea cause
problems with the learning of the foreign language, and act contrary in the perception and
in the oral production of the student, explain Schütz (2008, p, 2) according to Flege:
“ Language learnes who perceive sounds in the target language to be
phonologically identical to native language sounds (despite possible phonetic differences
between the two languages) may base whatever phonetic learning that does occur
duringthe acquisition process on an acoustic model provided by pairs of similar sounds in
two language-specific acoustic model as in first-language acquisition. (1981, p .443)
According to author the English Language has the singular system and the use of muscular
moviment , specially the tongue , is different and unique, when it´s comparing with the
phonetic of the portuguese language. The articulation of many sounds of the English
language and the others languages of germany origin, can be classified as difficult nature.
Wong (1993) argues that the importance of pronunciation is even more distinct when the
connection between pronunciation and listening comprehension is taken into account.
Wong (1993) demonstrates that a lack of knowledge of pronunciation could even affect
learners’ reading and spelling.

These discusses in the classroom with partners of crusade helped us to build news ways to
work in the classroom with our students. We need to understand the importance of the
pronunciation to speak , learner and teach better, include the teachers. The necessity of
improve our formation , our way of teaching a foreign language. It will depend a good
formation of our students in the future.
Bibliografia
Schütz, Ricardo . “ História da Língua Inglesa” English made in Brazil < http://
www.sk.com.br/ sk~enhis.html>. online 28 de março de 2008.
Crane, L . Bem, Edward yeafer and Randal L. Whitman. An introduction to Linguistics .
Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1981.
Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia od the English Language . Cambridge
University Press, 1999.
Flege, James Emil. “ The phonological Basis of Foreign Accent : A Hypothesis “. TESOL
Quarterly 15 (1981): 443-455.
Hammerly, Hector. Synthesis in Secong Language Teaching . Blaine, Wash: Second
Language Publications, 1982.
Dalton , D. (2002) Some techniques for teaching pronunciation. Retrieved May 1, 2002,
from http:// iteslj.org/techniqies/Dalton_ pronunciation.html
Nooteboom, S. (1983). Is speech production controlled by speech perception ? In van den
Broecke et. Al. (Eds), Sound Structure (pp.153-194). Dordrecht: Foris.
Pennington, M. (1989). Teaching Pronunciation from the top down. RELC journal, 20 (1),
21-38.
Varonis, E. &Gass, S. (1982). The comprehensibility od nonnative speech. Studies in
Second Language Acquisition, 4, 114-136.
Wong, R. (1987). Teaching Pronunciation : Focus on English Rhythm and intonation.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
Maniruzzaman, M. Teaching EFL Pronunciation: Why, What and How?
http;//www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?read=3492. acess: jun,2nd 2010.