Why Pronunciation?

Before wrapping up our discussion on pronunciation, I wanted to give you an important reminder from a previous post.  When focusing on pronunciation, there is a tendency for students and teachers alike to attempt to eliminate accents and achieve “native-like pronunciation.” 

Do NOT fall into this trap!

While some research suggests that, with proper motivation, students may progress leaps and bounds in pronunciation, “native-like pronunciation” is an unrealistic goal.  If this is the standard and desired result, your students will be discouraged and even devastated when they do not progress rapidly.  An accent is not a sign of poor English proficiency, but rather a marker of where the student comes from—a token of their heritage, culture, and story.  Their accent is a part of who they are.  

Remember that the goal of English instruction is successful communication, NOT native simulation!  

Focus your instruction on improving your students’ intelligibility, not on eliminating their accent.  It is important when conducting a needs assessment of your students to determine what elements of their speech impedes communication, not just on what elements of their speech differ from your own.  Consider offering your students a pre-test as your student needs assessment.  A common format for a pronunciation pre-test includes both reading aloud a text and producing spontaneous speech (perhaps narrating a story based on pictures).  Record your students as they read and speak and analyze the recordings for common patterns of errors.  The most frequent errors and the errors most effecting your students’ intelligibility should probably be tackled first in your lesson plans.  Repeating a similar test later on after instruction can help you and your students recognize and celebrate progress! 

Theory Behind Pronunciation Instruction

Remember my blog post on the historical progression of second-language theory and practices?  I wanted to take a moment to refer to two prominent theories that may apply to your pronunciation teaching curriculum.  

The most common theory that teachers turn to when teaching pronunciation is the Skill Acquisition Theory.  This theory suggests that language is acquired through skill repetition and developing muscle memory.  Learning a language is like learning to play an instrument—lots of practice.  Applying this theory to pronunciation instruction results in a focus on drilling and repetition.  Research suggests that the mere repetition of a teacher’s model does not result in long lasting language acquisition.  Your students may be able to copy you in the moment, but it will likely not last.  Muscle memory can be developed, however, if you help your students, not only copy the correct sounds, but recognize what they did with their mouth, tongue, and breath to make those sounds.  Awareness can help your students reproduce their progress and build on it the next class.  

Because the accepted goal of second-language teaching is to help students become effective communicators, most scholars and teachers embrace the Communicative Learning Theory.  This theory suggests that teaching in the classroom should model real-world scenarios and result in in-classroom communication.  While it can be easy to come up with activities to help students learn speaking and listening skills in a communicative setting, pronunciation is another matter.  No one has come forth with an effective and communicative way of teaching pronunciation.  Some have suggested using theater—role plays, skits, reader’s theater—to help with stress, pausing, and intonation, but little research has been done to say whether or not it is actually effective in the classroom.  As an avid theater enthusiast, I am of the opinion that a little theater could never hurt.  Theater can be engaging, fun, and bonding for the students, and it can give them a communicative space to implement what they have learned in both speaking and pronunciation instruction.

Regardless of what theory you use to address pronunciation in your classroom, remember that successful communication is the goal, not native simulation.  With this in mind, I suggest giving more weight to your instruction of listening, speaking, and grammar than pronunciation.  Yes, elements like stress and correct intonation are essential for successful communication, but these can have no real effect if your students do not yet have the vocabulary or grammar knowledge to apply them.  It is difficult to help your students’ speech become more intelligible if there is no speech to begin with.