Pronunciation The Cinderella of Language Teaching

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1、Pronunciation: The “Cinderella” of Language TeachingIntroductionIndisputably, teaching pronunciation is one of the most complicated yet significant aspects of EFL / ESL teaching. That is why it has been looked upon as the “Cinderella” of language teaching (Kelly, 1969; Dalton, 1997). What should be

2、drawn to our attention is that, in the process of communication, pronunciation (of both segmental and suprasegmental (prosodic) elements) is of paramount importance, since successful communication cannot take place without correct pronunciation (Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin, 1996)poorly pronounce

3、d segments and suprasegments may have the result of disorienting the listener and inhibiting comprehension. Of course, the notion of “correctness” with regard to pronunciation is not tantamount to adherence to “native speaker” norms or Received Pronunciation (RP) rules. At any rate, pronunciation ha

4、s an important social value (Gelvanovsky, 2002), which means that it should be related to prestige. There have been numerous studies involving speakers of various English accents in order to find out what values are generally associated with Received Pronunciation. According to the findings, those v

5、alues were the same as the values usually perceived as indispensable for socio-economic success: intelligence, professional competence, persuasiveness, diligence, social privilege, and so on (Hudson, 1980; Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994).Is pronunciation teachable?There are some researchers (Suter, 1976;

6、 Purcell and Suter, 1980, et al.) who have cast doubt on the importance of pronunciation in EFL teaching. According to them, pronunciation practice in class has little, if any, effect on learners pronunciation skills. In other words, the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a

7、 matter substantially beyond the control of educators.Pennington (1989), though, believed that teachers with formal training in pronunciation and teaching suprasegmentals can make a difference.Between these opposing views, Stern (1992: 112) says: There is no convincing empirical evidence that could

8、help us sort out the various positions on the merits of pronunciation training.Here, it might be helpful to think of various aspects of pronunciation along a teachability-learnability scale. For example, the attitudinal function of intonation might better be learnt without teacher intervention.Effec

9、tive teaching pronunciation: some considerationsIn order to make pronunciation teaching (PT) effective, we have to take into account the following factors:a) Biological factorsAccording to the so-called “Critical Period hypothesis” (or “Joseph Conrad phenomenon”), it is futile to teach pronunciation

10、 after a certain age (after about 14 years of age), because of learners decreasing ability to develop native-like pronunciation in a second or foreign language (Lenneberg, 1967; Krashen, 1973). However, Flege (1981: 445) claims: neither physiological maturation nor neurological reorganization render

11、s an adult incapable of speaking a foreign language without an accent.Brown (1994) argues that there are also some psychomotor factors at work that should be given some consideration. Command of foreign language phonology also taps into the neuromuscular domain, which may play a crucial role.b) Pers

12、onality factorsLinguistic expectations of interlocutors, ego permeability, attitude toward the foreign language, and type of motivation (Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin, 1996), all have their share in the development of pronunciation skills. Outgoing, confident learners, for example, might have more

13、 opportunities to practise their foreign language pronunciation simply because they are more often involved in interactions with native speakers (Avery & Ehrlich, 1992). On the other hand, some learners feel stupid pronouncing “weird” sounds and, with time, they decide that English pronunciation is

14、next to impossible to attain (Laroy, 1995).c) Sociocultural factorsPeople from some cultural backgrounds (for example, speakers of Japanese or Chinese) often think that it is impossible for them to pronounce English well. In some cases, improving pronunciation may be frowned upon within some communi

15、ties, and the EFL learners might be discouraged from making any progress. If English, lets say, is associated with invasion and oppression, then it may be very difficult for learners to master the language.d) Mother tongue influenceAmong other things, the sound system of learners mother tongue might

16、 be trasnferred into the foreign language in the following ways:1) When there is a sound in the foreign language, which is absent from the native sound inventory, or vice versa, learners might be incapable of producing or even perceiving the sound.2) Sound combination rules, which are different from

17、 those obtaining in the native language, might also present a difficulty for learners.3) Suprasegmental (prosodic) patterns might also be transferred from the native language (Avery & Ehrlich, 1992).e) Setting realistic goalsAttempting to completely eradicate a foreign accent in an EFL class is an u

18、nrealistic goal. It would be more reasonable to bring learners up to a point where they do not make pronunciation mistakes that would affect their being understood. As long as pronunciation does not impede successful communication, it should be considered acceptable. Once again, “native speaker” nor

19、ms should not be the yardstick against which to assess learners pronunciation performance.f) Pedagogic factorsIn general, EFL teachers must make sure that: learners produce large quantities of sentences by themselves; learners hear many different native models (in other words, they should be exposed

20、 to a wide variety of vernacular dialects and different pronunciations); learners receive feedback; suprasegmentals (amplitude, duration and pitch) are emphasised; learners should feel relaxed in the language learning setting (Kenworthy, 1987; Eskenazi, 1999).Principles of effective pronunciation te

21、achingBearing the above factors in mind, teachers should follow some pronciples of effective pronunciation teaching. In particular:1. They should learn to describe pronunciation and show how foreign language sounds are physically articulated (Phonetic or phonemic symbols can come in handy).2. They s

22、hould record their learners speech and have them listen to recordings of themselves.3. They should be aware of their own pronunciation. (A teachers accent may be different from the Received Pronunciation, which students may think to be correct).4. They should create a non-threatening, confidence-rai

23、sing atmosphere.5. They should teach pronunciation a little at a time (presenting segmentals first, then suprasegmentals).6. They should set realistic goals.A few words on suprasegmental (prosodic) featuresTeaching experience shows that it is worthwhile to introduce sounds in prosodic patterns even

24、at the initial stage of learning, as it brings the idea of “contextualised” sounds into connected speech. It could be argued that in speech, suprasegmental features of stress, rhythm, pitch, and intonation are equally important in achieving cohesion and coherencetwo terms usually associated with wri

25、tten discourse only.There are two main reasons to focus on prosodic features: Prosody serves several communicative functions; Prosody facilitates or constrains other dimensions of communication (Hargrove & McGarr, 1994: 4).As a communicative means, prosody performs the following functions: pragmatic

26、 (to focus attention on important information, differentiate old information from new information, signal turns in discourse, link sentences to create texts); syntactic (to mark syntactic structures); lexical (to differentiate words); attitudinal (to identify patterns common to various groups (Coupe

27、r-Kuhlen, 1986); intelligibility function (modifications in prosody influence speech comprehension, if prosodic information becomes more important; even segmentally correct speech with minor prosodic errors may not be intelligible (Allen & Hawkins, 1980; Lieberman, 1967); prosodic errors reduce atte

28、ntion to the meaning of utterances).ConclusionTo sum up, teaching pronunciation is of paramount importance in foreign language learning. To ensure effective pronunciation teaching, there are certain factors that should be considered: biological, personal, sociocultural, pedagogic, mother tongue infl

29、uence, and setting realistic goals. Nevertheless, pronunciation teaching should not only focus on segmental features, i.e., teaching specific sounds or nuances of sounds, but also on suprasegmental or prosodic features, i.e., stress, rhythm, pitch, and intonation, which greatly contribute to communi

30、cation. Of course, all this cannot be achieved unless teachers follow certain principles of effective pronunciation teaching: learning to describe pronunciation, creating a non-threatening atmosphere, and teaching pronunciation step by step.REFERENCES Allen, G. D., & Hawkins, S. (1980). Phonological

31、 rhythm: Definition andDevelopment. In G. H. Yeni-Komshian, J. F. Kavanagh, & C. A. Ferguson (Eds.), Child phonology. Volume I: Production (pp. 227-255). New York: Academic Press. Avery, P., & Ehrlich, S. (1992). Teaching American English pronunciation. NewYork: OUP. Brown, H. D. (1994). Principles

32、of language learning and teaching. (3rd edition).Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Celce-Murcia, N., Brinton, M. D., & Goodwin, J. M. (1996). Teaching Pronunciation. A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. New York: CUP. Couper-Kuhlen, E. (1986). An Introduction to Eng

33、lish prosody. Baltimore: Edward Arnold. Dalton, D. F. (1997). Some techniques for teaching pronunciation. The InternetTESL Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1. Retrieved November 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http:/www.aitech.ac.jp/iteslj/. Dalton, C., & Seidlhofer, S. (1994). Pronunciation. New York, NY: Oxf

34、ordUniversity Press. Eskenazi, M. (1999). Using automatic speech processing for foreign languagePronunciation tutoring: some issues and a prototype. Language Learning and Technology, 2(2), 62-76. Flege, J. E. (1981). The phonological basis of foreign accent: A hypothesis.TESOL Quarterly, 15(4), 443-

35、455. Gelvanovsky, G. V. (2002). Effective pronunciation teaching: principles, factors,and teachability. In P. V. Sysoyev (Ed.), Identity, Culture, and Language Teaching. USA: CREEES. Hargrove, P. M., & McGarr, N. S. (1994). Prosody management ofCommunication disorders. San Diego, California: Singula

36、r Publishing Group, Inc. Hudson, R. A. (1980). Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: CUP. Kelly, L. G. (1969). 25 centuries of language teaching. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Kenworthy, J. (1987). Teaching English pronunciation. New York: Longman. Krashen, S. D. (1973). Lateralisation, language learning and th

37、e critical period:Some new evidence. Language Learning, 23, 63-74. Laroy, C. (1995). Pronunciation. New York: OUP. Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological foundations of language. New York: Wiley. Lieberman, P. (1967). Intonation, perception and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pennington, M. (1989). Teaching pronunciation from the top down. RELCJournal, 20(1), 21-38. Purcell, E., & Suter, R. (1980). Predictors of pronunciation accuracy: AReexamination. Language Learning, 30(2), 271-287.