ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AT DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL LEVELS: INSIGHTS INTO TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS AND ACTIONS MAGDALENA SZYSZKA (original) (raw)
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Research in Language, 2016
The aim of the present paper is to reflect upon the place of pronunciation in English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching at different educational levels in Poland. To collect the data, an on-line survey was conducted among EFL professionals teaching at primary, lower secondary, and higher secondary schools in Poland. The questions focused on the respondents’ beliefs about pronunciation, teachers’ competences regarding pronunciation and pronunciation teaching, and the pronunciation teaching techniques they use. The results depict the most and least frequently used pronunciation teaching techniques at each of the three educational stages, and the beliefs of EFL teachers in Poland regarding pronunciation teaching.
The English pronunciation teaching in Europe survey: selected results
Research in Language, 2012
This paper presents a subset of findings from a European-wide, on-line survey of English pronunciation teaching practices (EPTiES). Quantitative and qualitative data from seven countries (Finland, ) are presented, focusing on teachers' comments about the training they received to teach English pronunciation, about what they do inside the classroom and about what happens outside the classroom in terms of students' exposure to English. The results of EPTiES and of follow-up interviews reveal interesting phenomena across Europe. Most of the teacher-respondents were non-native speakers of English and felt they had little or no training in how to teach pronunciation, which raises the question of how teachers are coping with this key aspect of language teaching. Differences between countries are explored, especially via replies to open-ended questions and relevant contextual factors (e.g. language policy) allowing a more nuanced picture to emerge for each country. Suggestions are made for improving teacher training and for further research.
The text of this research report presents an in-depth analysis of secondary school EFL teachers' views on their confidence in teaching correct pronunciation. In order to explore how self-confident the eleven Slovak high school teachers of English feel while practising correct pronunciation, we used a semi-structured interview. A detailed analysis of teachers' question responses revealed that a slight majority of our interviewees is confident in teaching correct pronunciation. At the same time we uncovered that some of the participating research subjects are somehow reluctant to teach it, mostly due to an insufficient methodological preparation in their preparatory programs. Introduction Correct pronunciation is compulsory for successful oral communication. It simply means that besides a correct use of grammar and vocabulary, a speaker has to pronounce correctly in order to achieve success in spoken interaction. These statements lead us to the question regarding the importanc...
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Teaching and practicing correct pronunciation is often neglected in English language lessons. The importance of correct pronunciation is unquestionable as it is a fundamental feature of successful communication. For this reason, it needs to be taught and practiced right from the beginning of English language teaching, because young learners are the best recipients and often can achieve flawless-like pronunciation. This study investigates how teachers perceive teaching pronunciation at several primary schools in Slovakia, focusing on teaching techniques and materials used for teaching pronunciation, and aspects of pronunciation. Methods for collecting research data were observation and interview. Findings show that the most used teaching techniques are corrections, drills and songs, and that the most used materials are pictures and textbook CDs. Segmental aspects were practiced when learning new words, but without any particular attention to segmental features and supra-segmental aspects of rhythm were practiced by rhymes, chants and songs and no attention was paid to word stress. The study indicates that teachers pay attention to teaching pronunciation, but without particular focus on different features of pronunciation and using limited teaching techniques and materials.
This paper presents a subset of findings from a European-wide, on-line survey of English pronunciation teaching practices (EPTiES). Quantitative and qualitative data from seven countries (Finland, ) are presented, focusing on teachers' comments about the training they received to teach English pronunciation, about what they do inside the classroom and about what happens outside the classroom in terms of students' exposure to English. The results of EPTiES and of follow-up interviews reveal interesting phenomena across Europe. Most of the teacher-respondents were non-native speakers of English and felt they had little or no training in how to teach pronunciation, which raises the question of how teachers are coping with this key aspect of language teaching. Differences between countries are explored, especially via replies to open-ended questions and relevant contextual factors (e.g. language policy) allowing a more nuanced picture to emerge for each country. Suggestions are made for improving teacher training and for further research.
Entramados, 2022
There is little information about learner beliefs concerning pronunciation (henceforth PR) in FL (foreign language) learning contexts (Toyama, 2015), even more so in specific environments such as teacher preparation programs. Ellis (2008) suggests the need for teachers to find out about learners´ beliefs, to become aware of and evaluate them, as beliefs influence the actions undertaken by students. In the present study, first-year students were asked to write personal narratives regarding their journey through the subject “English Phonetics & Phonology I”. Data were approached using the narrative methodology. Findings entail the novelty implied in PR-related matters (mainly phonetic transcription) and the shortness of the academic term as major learning obstacles. Rehabilitation of fossilized pronunciations, a recurrent topic in most stories, was viewed as a positive issue of PR learning by participants. The likely connection between these findings and the fact that PR teaching is overlooked in several EFL courses around the world (Gilbert, 2010) is discussed. Finally, a course of action is suggested to attempt to revert the marginalized situation of PR in the ELT field as a long-term goal. The aim of the paper is to find out about learners´ beliefs regarding PR learning by interpreting students´ personal narratives.
Beliefs and Practices of EFL Instructors in Teaching Pronunciation
Vision: Journal for Language and Foreign Language Learning
Pronunciation teaching and learning have stimulated a renewed interest among second language acquisition (SLA) researchers in the past few years. To pursue this line of inquiry, this study set out to investigate the beliefs and practices of Iranian EFL teachers on pronunciation teaching. Convenience sampling was employed to recruit 74 participants who completed a pronunciation teaching and learning questionnaire. Interviews were also conducted with volunteered participants. The results revealed that 57% of the respondent teachers mostly worked on suffixes such as the -ed and -s endings always or often in their classrooms. The second most frequently taught feature was word stress (54%), followed by syllable structure, which 53% of the teachers often or always taught. Drama and role-play were the most common strategies often or always used by 49% of the teachers in teaching pronunciation. In addition, interviews with participant teachers revealed that the most common classroom activit...
EFL pronunciation teaching to Polish English studies majors
Katowice : Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego eBooks, 2019
The article discusses selected issues in teaching English pronunciation to Polish learners at the university level. The main assumption is that metacompetence and practical training are inseparable in that they interact effectively in successful pronunciation pedagogy. We discuss segmental issues, such as vowel category learning and teaching stop aspiration. Next, we proceed to suprasegmental elements, such as intonation, stress, and rhythm. We attempt to show how integrating students' general knowledge of linguistics with various training tasks in speech perception and production may lead to improved production and perception in English.