Pronunciation teaching

Pronunciation

teaching

Paula Villablanca King's College London

Outline

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Pronunciation teaching

Examples of activities

Teaching principles

Why teaching pronunciation?

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Why teaching pronunciation?

Pronunciation can save lives

In a report in Flight Safety Digest, Cushing (1995) described two interactions involving airline pilots, both of which entailed confusion between the words two and to

Why teaching pronunciation?

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(Derwing & Munro, 2015)

Cushing (1995)

ATC cleared the aircraft to descend “two four zero zero.” The pilot read back the clearance as, “OK. Four zero zero.” The aircraft then descended to 400 feet (122 meters) rather than what the controller had meant, which was 2,400 feet (732 meters).

In another case a captain, who was the pilot flying, heard his co-pilot say, “Cleared to seven.” He began a descent to 7,000 feet (2,135 meters), but at 9,500 feet (2,898 meters) the co-pilot advised the captain that 10,000 feet (3,050 meters) was the correct altitude. The co-pilot’s communication, which the captain had heard as cleared to seven, was in fact cleared two seven-meaning the assigned runway for landing was 27L.

Why teaching pronunciation?

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Teaching Principles

Intelligibility Principle

Nativeness Principle

The goal is to develop L2 speech that is indistinguishable from native speakers

The goal is intelligible speech, irrespective of how native-like it sounds.

Teaching Principles

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Levis (2018)

Some basic terminology

What do you think is the relationship between these concepts?

Intelligibility

Comprehensibility

The degree of match between a speaker’s intended message and the listener’s comprehension

The ease or difficulty a listener experiences in understanding an utterance

Teaching Principles

Accent

A particular pattern of pronunciation that is perceived to distinguish members of different speech communities

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(Derwing & Munro, 2015)

What do you think of Adele's speech?

Teaching Principles

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What do you think of this speech sample?

Teaching Principles

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Intelligibility

Accent

Teaching Principles

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What speech aspects can affect intelligibility?

Teaching Principles

Intelligibility

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The most fundamental characteristic of successful oral communication

Levis (2018)

What is involved in Pronunciation Teaching?

FORtune forTUNE [ˈfɔɹtʃən] vs. [fɚˈtʰun]

Teaching Principles

Segmentals

Rhythm

Word stress

Intonation

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Word level

Discourse level

However...

What happens if your student is...

actress/actor

"It is important that teachers be flexible in accommodating students’ needs and wishes"

(Derwing & Munro, 2015, p.10)

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Examples of activities

Example 1

(Brown, 1998)

Word level

Examples of activities

Consonant and vowels that carry high functional load and frequency

Choral repetition

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(Brown, 1998)

Functional load

A measure of the amount of work a phoneme contrast does in a language

Examples of activities

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Adapted from Brown (1988, p. 604)

Example 1

(Brown, 1998)

Word level

Examples of activities

Consonant and vowels that carry high functional load and frequency

Choral repetition

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Example 2

(Murphy, 2014)

Enhance listening comprehension

Examples of activities

Use examples of intelligible non-native speakers of English

Critical listening

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Example 3

(Gilbert, 2012; Levis, Muller Levis & Sonsaat-Hegelheimer, 2021)

Word level

Examples of activities

Discourse level

Physical movement

Raising awareness

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"It is important that teachers be flexible in accommodating students’ needs and wishes"

(Derwing & Munro, 2015, p.10)

Any questions?

/'θæŋk juː/

Bibliography

-Brown, A. (1988). Functional load and the teaching of pronunciation. TESOL Quarterly, 22(4), 593–606. -Derwing, T.M. and Munro, M.J., 2015. Pronunciation fundamentals: evidence-based perspectives for L2 teaching and research. Language Learning & Language Teaching. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. -Gilbert, J., 2012. Clear speech: Pronunciation and listening comprehension in North American English, 4th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Grant, L., 2014. Pronunciation Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching. University of Michigan Press. -Jenkins, J., 2002. A Sociolinguistically Based, Empirically Researched Pronunciation Syllabus for English as an International Language. Applied Linguistics, 23(1), pp.83–103. - Levis, J.M., 2018. Intelligibility, Oral Communication, and the Teaching of Pronunciation. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press. -Levis, J., Muller Levis, G, & Sonsaat-Hegelheimer, S. (2021) Pronunciation for a purpose. Unpublished - Murphy, J.M., 2014b. Intelligible, comprehensible, non-native models in ESL/EFL pronunciation teaching. System, 42, pp.258–269. - Walker, R., 2010. Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca. OUP Oxford.