Kristina Tomi 2893

Handout #1

Teaching English Pronunciation to ESL Students

For various reasons, pronunciation has not been taught to ESL students to
the same extent as grammar or vocabulary. The main idea of the articles is
to establish why pronunciation should be taught to ESL students as well as
how it should be taught.

Paradigm Shift
Nativeness principle: the idea behind pronunciation teaching is to achieve
the accent (RP or Standard American) as similar as a native speakers as
possible
Practised before 1960s, used in audio-lingual and direct method
Abandoned for the following reasons:
Native accent impossible to achieve due to critical period
English accent affected by L1
Intelligibility principle: speakers need to understand each other, as accent
is not central to understanding, it is not necessary for the students to
acquire native-like accent. Only features central to understanding should
be taught
Practised in the second half of the 20th century onwards

Pronunciation is barely taught to ESL students

Pronunciation is most often not explicitely taught to ESL students, and if it
is it gives little result for the following reasons:
It is usually not properly included in the curriculum
Teachers are not trained how to teach pronunciation
Teachers are not trained how to assess pronunciation
There are no prescribed materials for pronunciation teaching to ESL
students.
Prevailing communicative method abandoned pronunciation
teaching and correction in order not to affect fluency.
Students refuse to acquire the accent because thez feel that the
intonation and sound of sounds in their mother tongue are part of
their identity.

Why teach English pronunciation to ESL students?

English has become Lingua Franca, thus it is not only used for
communication between a native and a non-native speaker but for

Kristina Tomi 2893

Handout #1

communication between two non-native speakers as well. Some

segmental and suprasegmental features of English turned out to be
central to convezing meaning. (e.g. fal-rise intonation means the person
speaking is sarcastic; rise intonation at the end means question Got the
keys. Vs Got the keys?)

How to teach pronunciation to ESL students?

There should be a central policy for pronunciation
teaching/assessment
It should not be taught in stand-alone classes but integrated in other
units of language
Teachers should predict the problems their students could have
according to their L1 and work on this problems.
Students in critical period should be trained to acquire language,
whereas teachers should explicitely explain prosodic and segmental
features of English to the students who are past the critical period.
Motivation besides exposure turned out to be one of the key factors
when acquiring pronunciation is concerned.
Teachers should account for their studentsmulltiple intelligences,
thus include visual aids, physical movement etc.
Teachers role:
Teacher is a monitor and a coach. Teacher should correct the pronunciation
with caution and encourage self-correction and peer-correction. Teacher
must not be intrusive. Teacher should make the convinient environment
for pronunciation learning, provide necessary materials and explanations,
provide information gap for students to fulfil.

What to teach to ESL students when it comes to

pronunciation?
Suprasegmentals turned out to be more important to understanding than
individual sounds, as context may provide for the mispronunciation of a
sound. (e.g. We came to England by shi:p)
Teachers maz focus on:
Sounds: individual sounds that make problems, with regard to the
sound system of their L1
Word stress: because it differs in different languages
Sentence stress: teachers should raise their students awareness
and focus on both speaking and listening

Kristina Tomi 2893

Handout #1

Intonation: as it affects meaning, teachers should provide activities

that practise various patterns
Connected speech: teachers should raise their students awareness
about sound changes from the very beginning of studying English so
that they could understand connected speech better.
CONCLUSION: Pronunciation teaching/acquisition is not a matter of
prestige but central to understanding and should be incorporated in TOESL
as such.