Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment must be done individually and has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 6 to 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices if

there are any-).
- Font type: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Font size: 11.
- Spacing: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be written in this Word document and has to follow the
instructions on quotes and references detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, the assignment has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the
document: Subject Evaluation. Sending it to the tutors e-mail is not allowed.

It is strongly recommended to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the
document Subject Evaluation.

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 Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

Assignment instructions:
Lets imagine that you would wish to start pronunciation teaching in the English
Department of your institution. Read the following quotation:

Intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicative

competence (Morley 1991)

Do you consider this a useful starting point in order to develop a policy for
including pronunciation teaching in the English Department at your institution?

Among other aspects you might consider relevant, make sure to look at the
following aspects in your essay:

a) How do we define intelligible? What do we mean by it?

b) Is pronunciation an essential component of communicative
competence?
c) What percentage of the syllabus can/should be devoted to pronunciation?
d) Do non-native speakers have the confidence/skills to devote time to it?
e) How can we teach intelligible pronunciation? What resources (apart from
human) would you consider using?

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
next page (the cover). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will
not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

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 Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

Name and surname(s): Noelia Edith

Fuentes Rivera Gamarra
Login: PEFPMTFL1562274
Group: 2016-06_NFuentesRivera_TP
Date: October 28th, 2017

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 Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

INDEX

Pages

Introduction 5

Content 6

Intelligibility ... 6-7

Concept of Communicative Competence ..... 7

Pronunciation the essential component of communicative competence .. 7 - 8

Pronunciation in the syllabus 8 - 9

Becoming confident with speaking 9 10

Resourses to work on intelligible pronunciation .. 9 -10

Conclusion . 11

Webiography . 12

INTRODUCTION

The growing emphasis on communicative approaches for the teaching English has
placed higher demands for correct pronunciation.

The ultimate goal of many second and foreign language (L2 and FL) teachers is to
prepare students for successful communication outside the classroom. However,
attaining this goal does not necessarily require that students become native-like in an
L2. Students whose L2 production is not entirely native-like but who are able to

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communicate effectively are clearly successful L2 users. This pedagogical goal of

successful communication is seen in textbooks on L2 pronunciation methodology. The
great majority of textbook authors recommend that teachers strive for their students
oral production to be understandable, not necessarily native-like (Celce-Murcia,
Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996; Kenworthy, 1987; Tench, 1981).

Nowadays in Peru, listening and speaking are important portions of high school.
Despite this fact, the usefulness of teaching pronunciation still remains one of the most
widely debated subjects in the field of language teaching.

The proponents of the importance of teaching pronunciation, supported by some

current research results would suggest that teachers can make a noticeable difference
if certain criteria, such as the teaching of suprasegmentals and the linking of
pronunciation with listening practice, are fulfilled.

In this paper, we will see what intelligible pronunciation consists on and its importance
in our real world.

Later in the century, pronunciation teaching research has begun to move on both by
embracing more sophisticated approaches to interlanguage phonology, taking
universal, developmental, and other processes into account as well as transfer and by
focusing increasingly on suprasegmental features along with segmental.

A number of researchers have ceased treating pronunciation as an isolated, self-

contained linguistic and pedagogic phenomenon so that the idea of teaching
pronunciation becomes part of learners classes.

CONTENT

Intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicative

competence (Morley 1991)

INTELLIGIBILITY

Intelligibility may be broadly defined as the extent to which a speakers message is

actually understood by a listener (Munro & Derwing 1999, p. 289)
This broad definition implies at least two different types of understanding:
- Successfully identifying words
- Understanding a speakers intended meaning.

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 Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

1. Successfully identifying words.

Intelligibility (technical definition)
The ability of listeners to accurately decode individual words in the stream of speech
or, the ability of a speaker to say words in such a way that listeners can decode them..

Pronunciation deviations do not necessarily impair the ability to decode, e.g.

Dialect pronunciations
English as a Lingua Franca (Nonnative) speaker pronunciations.

2. Understanding a speakers intended meaning.

Comprehensibility (two definitions)
The accuracy with which a speakers intended meaning is perceived (this implies a way
to measure comprehension) Hahn (2004)
The perception of how easy it is to understand a speaker (this implies a more global
view of comprehension that trusts listeners intuitions). Derwing and Munro; Munro &
Derwing (various references)

Intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness

Intelligibility is often misjudged with the terms like accentedness and comprehensibility.
However while accentedness finds out the difference in speech, comprehensibility
determines the ease or difficulty of ones speech, intelligibility involves the actual
understanding of a speech from listeners perspective (Derwing, 2010).

Intelligibility is the technical term for understandability of speech sounds and words.
This is the term used in the field of speech science therapy to quantitatively describe
pronunciation accuracy.

Intelligible pronunciation.

CONCEPT OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Competence is one of the most controversial terms in the field of general and applied
linguisticts. Its introduction to linguistic discourse has been generally associated with
Chomsky who is in his very influential book Aspect of the Theory of Syntax drew has
been today viewed as a classic distinction between competence ( the monolingual
speaker-listeners knowledge ) and performance ( the actual use of language in real
situations).

Soon after Chomsky proposed and defined the concepts of competence and
performance, advocates for a communicative view in applied linguistics ( Savignon,
1972 ) expressed their strong disapproval at the idea of using the concept of idealized,

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 Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

purely linguistic competence as a theoretical ground of the methodology for learning,

teaching and testing language and testing languages.

Communicative competence is the ability to function in a truly communicative setting -

that is; in a dynamic exchange in which linguistic competence must adapt itself to the
total informational input, both linguistic and paralinguistic, of one or more interlocutors
(Savignon, 1972). According to her, and many others theoreticians ( Canale and Swain,
1980; etc.), the nature of communicative competence is not static but dynamic, it is
more interpersonal than intrapersonal and relative rather than absolute. It is also
largely defined by context.

In her opinion, competence can be observed developed, maintained and evaluated

only through performance.

PRONUNCIATION THE ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF COMMUNICATIVE

COMPETENCE
Morley (1991) identifies intelligible pronunciation as an essential component
communicative competence that stays at the heart of CLT. According to Fraser (2000)
person with good pronunciation skills can improve their general language skills at a
greater rate than someone with bad pronunciation. Therefore, pronunciation instruction
is of great importance for successful oral communication to take place. Moreover
pronunciation has an essential socio-cultural value (Gelvanovsky, 2001) signifying its
relation to attitudes and identity.

Despite the fact that pronunciation is an essential and integrated component of oral
communication and communicative competence, it very often remains neglected or
absent in many language teaching programs even if it is included in the curriculum.

Teaching pronunciation is there,

Researchers like Morley (1991), Celce-Murcia (1996), Jenkins (2004), Levis (2005) and
others hold similar point of view. It is believed that teaching pronunciation is
unnecessary in ESL/FL since non-native teachers cannot teach native like
pronunciation. In addition, Harmer (2003) found teachers neglecting it reasoning that
they have already many things to do and teaching pronunciation will only add problems
to their teaching.

PRONUNCIATION IN THE SYLLABUS.

I would like to share my own experience about the way I work with pronunciation in the
language center I work.

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 Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

The text we use there is WORLD ENGLISH published by NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

Every single unit contains a very small amount of different aspects of pronunciation.
For instance:
Vowel and consonant sounds
Rising and falling intonation
Stressed syllables
Rhythm
Linking words, etc.
We, as teachers are obliged to follow the syllables, although there are colleagues, they
dont enjoy teaching pronunciation; they know it is a must to do it. Personally, I do enjoy
teaching pronunciation, as well as my students.
They realized that most of the times when we start working on a new sound, is a
challenge.
They find it very difficult at first but at the end they succeed. With constant practice they
know they can sound as a near native.
As Wong stated:

Pronunciation work can be implemented in a variety of ways. It might be the

central and exclusive focus of the course. It might be a strand in a speaking or
general language courses. Its objectives may be explicitly articulated, desirable
with older students, or implicitly carried out, recommended with young children.
Whether explicit or implicit, effective pronunciation work must be systematic.
(Wong, p. 12)

For this reason I think pronunciation should be included in the syllabus, I think learners
can start with a very small amount of pronunciation to get familiar with the language.
Pronunciation does not have to be apart or forgotten, teachers pay more attention to
grammar, reading, writing and vocabulary.

BECOMING CONFIDENT WITH SPEAKING

This is the first skill students would like to get, speaking. Most of the different kinds of
learners I have been in charged of, wish to speak fluently. They do not know how
exactly to succeed on it, or what else to do to be better that is why they feel worried or
sometimes bad because they feel that there is a lack of vocabulary or they are afraid of
saying something incorrectly pronounced.

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 Assignment Resit 1 FP005 TP

Students need to understand the real value of this practice and all the implications
related to developing pronunciation skills, it will be easy for her/him to overcome
internal and external difficulties and insert this practice into his/ her learning process.
So most of them dont feel confident due to the fact that they find new sounds so hard
to catch on.

Nonnative English instructors may themselves subscribe to the native-speaker model,

leading to feelings of insufficiency, anxiety, and self-consciousness in their identity as
an English speaker and teacher (Golombek & Jordan, 2005). It should however be
noted that simply rejecting the native-speaker superiority myth may not provide the
necessary legitimacy that nonnative teachers need, and that an exploration of identity
and/or credibility through other channels such as personal experience, pedagogical
knowledge, knowledge of students L1, language expertise, or access to 10 expert
opinions that dismantle the native speaker myth might be necessary (Golombek &
Jordan, 2005).

RESOURSES TO WORK ON INTELLIGIBLE PRONUNCIATION

In teaching practice, we use diverse resources: interactive phonemic charts, YouTube

videos made by professionals in the field, with clear and practical explanations, useful
for students and for teachers; interactive online dictionaries, special interactive chats
where learners are being involved in a real-time communication with native and non-
native speakers of English and can improve their oral skills talking to people that share
same interests, new ideas and new cultures.
There are a number of activities teachers can do to help learners use word stress
correctly:

Lead perception exercises on duration of stress, loudness of stress, and

pitch.These exercises will help learners recognize the difference between
stressed and unstressed syllables (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994; Field, 2005). For
example, learners can be taught to recognize where stress falls in words with
two or more syllables through learning the rules of parts of speech and word
stress (e.g., putting the primary stress on the first syllable in compound
nouns: airport, laptop [Grant, 2010, p.57]). Learners can also use a
pronunciation computer program, such as American Speechsounds (Hiser &
Kopecky, 2009), to learn the duration and loudness of stress.

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Do exercises on recognizing and producing weak, unstressed syllables (Dalton

& Seidlhofer, 1994; Field, 2005). For example, one exercise helps learners
identify computer voice recognition mistakes that have occurred because of
mispronunciation of weak vowel forms (e.g., Alaska if she wants to come with
us instead of Ill ask if she wants to come with us [Hancock,1998, p. 80]).

Present pronunciation rules for stress (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994; Kenworthy,
1987). For example, teach learners that in reflexive pronouns, the stress is
always on the word self (e.g., myself, ourselves [Grant, 2010, p. 57]).

Teach word stress when teaching vocabulary (Field, 2005). For example, any
time that new words are introduced, point out to learners where the major stress
falls.

Use analogy exercises (Field, 2005). Words sharing similar stress patterns are
easier for listeners to remember (Aitchison, 2003). For example, give learners a
list of words with similar stress and ask them to state the rule (e.g., compound
adverbs of location, such as inside, downstairs, outdoors [Hancock, 1998, p.
69]).

At higher levels, teach learners how to break words into syllables and predict
where word stress lies (Field, 2005). For example, the number of syllables in a
word can be taught to the class with examples from the teacher. This might then
be practiced using the Making Tracks board game, played in pairs (Hancock,
1998, p. 8), in which learners make a track through words on the board based
on the number of syllables in each word. Learners need to be able to accurately
state the number of syllables in the words on the board, and the first learner to
make a track through the board wins the game. Teachers can also make their
own version of this game to give learners practice counting the syllables of new
words they are learning in class.

CONCLUSION

All students can do well in learning the pronunciation of a foreign language if the
teacher and student participate together in the total learning process. Success can be
achieved if each have set, respectively, individual teaching and learning goals.
Pronunciation must be viewed as more than correct production of phonemes: it must
be viewed in the same light as grammar, syntax, and discourse that is a crucial part of
communication. Research has shown and current pedagogical thinking on

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pronunciation maintains that 'intelligible pronunciation is seen as an essential

component of communicative competence' (Morley, 1991:513). With this in mind, the
teacher must then set achievable goals that are applicable and suitable for the
communication needs of the student. The student must also become part of the
learning process, actively involved in their own learning. The content of the course
should be integrated into the communication class, with the content emphasizing the
teaching of suprasegmentals, linking pronunciation with listening comprehension, and
allowing for meaningful pronunciation practice.

REFERENCES

1. DALTON, C. & SEIDLHOFER, B. (2001) Pronunciation. Oxford University

Press.
2. JAMES, R. B. (2010). Teaching Pronunciation Gets a Bad R.A.P: A Framework
for Teaching Pronunciation. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
3. WONG, R. (1987) Teaching Pronunciation: Focus on English Rhythm and
Intonation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Regents.

WEBIOGRAPHY

1. ABBAS, P. G. (2012). The Significance of Pronunciation in English Language

Teaching. [online] Available at www.ccsenet.org/elt/15940-50171-1-S.pdf
[Retrieved: 20th February 2014]

2. Pronunciation and intelligibility: issues in research and practice proceedings of

the 2nd annual pronunciation in second language learning and teaching
conference. 2011 TESL/Applied Linguistics Iowa State University. Available at

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http://jlevis.public.iastate.edu/2010%20Proceedings%2010-25-11%20-
%20B.pdf [Retrieved : 19th February 2014]

3. HAKULINEN, J.,TURUNEN,M. AND RIH, K.J The use of prosodic features

to help users extract Information from structured elements in spoken Dialogue
systems.[online] Available at

http://www.cs.uta.fi/~tko/Tutkimus/hci/spi/reports/the_use_of_prosodic_features.
pdf [Retrieved : 19th February 2014]

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