pronunciation pedagogy

<b>Forum for ideas on how to teach pronunciation </b>

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Tara B
Posts: 126
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 11:58 pm
Location: Sterling, VA

pronunciation pedagogy

Post by Tara B » Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:41 pm

I am not as up on the literature as I should be, but it seems to me that the recent trends in teaching pronunciation lean a little too heavily on pronunciation through context. Although context is essential, I have found it more useful to teach pronunciation from a variety of angles, including:

1) listening skills--in and out of context
2) muscle building (exercises and tongue twisters)
3) articulation (articulatory awareness)
4) speaking skills--in and out of context
5) reading skills (phonics)

My experience is that most pronunciation programs are somewhat narrow. I would be interested to know if any of you have a book or program that you use that you really like. . .

I have been using a combination of Pronunciation Pairs (Baker & Goldstein), Pronunciation Matters (Henrichsen), and Realistically Speaking (Price). I just wish someone would put them all together in one book.

CEJ
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:21 pm

Post by CEJ » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:32 pm

Good points all (and a very comprehensive approach you have outlined above). TEFL got locked into inadequate structuralist approaches to linguistics, applied linguistics, etc. Or pronunciation got relegated to 'accent reduction' for somewhat advanced students in ESL contexts (such as teaching assistants). So pronunciation often fails to get just treatment as applied phonology, which would make it integral to any holistic approach to TEFL/TESL/TESOL/ELT.

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