A Plea for Pronunciation

Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2019

Teachers of English might be tempted to pose a question structured on the one that Hamlet asked himself in his great monologue: “Pronunciation: to teach or not to teach…”. At first glance, the question may seem a trivial one, but the problem it tackles is undeniably worth attention and scrutiny. The teachers who would start pondering about such an issue must be aware of the relevance and importance of pronunciation instruction.

How important is pronunciation instruction and how much time should be allotted for it in such a crowded curriculum where general English is taught , for instance, 3 hours per week as at most junior colleges? Some teachers might argue that pronunciation is not important at all for very few of the tests require students to show their speaking ability. Others, however, find that they do not know how to teach pronunciation, even if they want to teach it . It is because of these conventional notions about pronunciation that the teaching of it has, for too long, been neglected in many ESL/EFL curriculums all over the world

It is exactly one hundred years ago that a significant event occurred in the history of English phonetics -yet one which is now totally forgotten. In 1909 the first modern English pronunciation dictionary was published. It received little acclaim, and only modest sales, but it was nevertheless a publication which must be regarded as a landmark in the development of our discipline.

2010

The pronunciation of English varied in Shakespeare's day by geography and social class, age, and gender, as it does now. It would be misleading, therefore, to try to describe 'the sound of Early Modern English' as if there were only one form of spoken English at the time. It is, however, possible to make some broad generalisations. Most significantly, Early Modern accents were rhotic, which means that the /r/ in words like 'arm' and 'word' was pronounced. Today, most American English accents are rhotic, while most English English accents are not.

2014

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2015

Pronunciation, despite being known as an important component of language learning, has not been awarded due attention within the field of language education. This article is a humble attempt to present an overview of the history of pronunciation teaching. Different approaches and methods of language teaching from the late nineteenth century into the new millennium are reviewed and discussed with regard to their stance in pronunciation instruction. Recent trends and issues of pronunciation teaching, e.g. intelligibility and Lingua Franca Core are also highlighted. Discussions like the present one might be beneficial in gaining a better understanding and evaluation of the status quo in order to improve and enhance the status of pronunciation instruction within language pedagogy.

A review by Alice Henderson about the book by Marnie Reed and me The Handbook of English Pronunciation is a long-awaited, state-of-the-art reference book which will be a valuable resource for language researchers and teachers alike. It provides an authoritative overview of current knowledge in this field and addresses key pedagogical issues. Readers do not need to be experts in pronunciation to benefit from the book, and reading it will bring home to them how " pronunciation influences all research into, and teaching of, spoken language " (2015: xii). The handbook, skilfully edited by Marnie Reed and John Levis, showcases contributions from 37 experts from around the world in 530 pages. The seven-page Introduction includes some candid comments about the challenges of pulling together contributions from a host of authors, countries and approaches, but—given the variety and richness of Englishes around the world—this diversity is one of the book's major strengths. The main body of the book contains 28 chapters organised into six parts, and each of the parts delves into one aspect of English pronunciation: History, Description, Discourse, Major Varieties, Acquisition, and Teaching. In addition to the bibliography at the end of each chapter, the book provides a comprehensive, 10-page Index that makes it easy for readers to rapidly find what interests them—detailed language descriptions, practical classroom information or further reading suggestions. Showing readers where to find further information as their needs and questions evolve is a key feature of any handbook. Finally, Notes on Contributors (2015: vii–xi) provide useful information about the authors. Part 1 of the handbook—The History of English Pronunciation—opens with a chapter by Jeremy Smith, in which he illustrates the process of historical phonology with three case studies: voiced and voiceless fricatives as examples of the development of new phonemic categories, the relation between digraphs and diphthongs, and the causes and consequences of the Great Vowel Shift. Smith's methodological queries and meta-reflections set the tone for

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) dates from the early 1970s (Widdowson, 1972; Wilkins, 1972). Its general approach developed from the recognition that teaching language form did not invariably result in success at using language for communication (Berns, 1984; Widdowson, 1972). With the rise of CLT from the early 1970s to the early 1990s came the decline of pronunciation in language teaching. Pronunciation had been a central element of pre-CLT language teaching, but this centrality was lost in the 1970s and beyond. Such a shift raises the question of whether CLT proponents in the early years were deliberately and openly negative toward pronunciation, or was the neglect of pronunciation an unintended consequence of a broad-based paradigm shift in language teaching related to the rise of CLT? It is our contention that the neglect of pronunciation associated with the early CLT era was a result of a paradigm shift in language teaching. In this paper, we first discuss how pronunciation was situated in second language (L2) teaching during the early CLT era (early 1970s-early 1990s). Then we examine what we believe are some of the CLT principles that help explain why pronunciation seemed to decline in importance in early CLT. Next, we show why those same principles led to a renewal of pronunciation’s role starting around the mid-1980s. Following this, we look at the evidence for CLT’s influence from journal articles. Finally, we look at pronunciation-centered ESL classroom textbooks to examine how CLT principles were realized.

International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 2016

The role of pronunciation has varied widely in different methods and approaches of language teaching. In Grammar Translation Method (GTM) and the cognitive learning it received virtually no role. In Audio Lingual Method (ALM), on the other hand, it had a pivotal role. In communication-oriented approaches and within the broad context of EFL/ESL teaching in which successful communication is emphasized, it has been argued that pronunciation pedagogy deserves neither fate. This paper provides a historical overview of pronunciation teaching from GTM to communicative language teaching (CLT) highlighting the fact that until CLT, pronunciation pedagogy witnessed some drastic fluctuations; nevertheless, from then on, most of the researchers and practitioners in the field have come to the conclusion that the most reasonable and logical goal for pronunciation pedagogy should be intelligibility and functional communicability rather than nativeness.

American Speech, 2001