Teaching
pronunciation,
why is it so
difficult?
By Maria De La Lama
Teaching pronunciation is still the “ugly duckling” in our English courses. To begin with, instructors seem to be fond of grammatical rules, but unfortunately those are the only rules that our students are exposed to. But what about phonological rules? As a matter of fact, when I have asked a teacher to explain just one phonological rule as a vowel reduction, they have looked puzzled wondering where they could have learnt about such thing. It’s is not surprising then that usually teachers skip pronunciation explanations and drills without realizing that teaching that would enhance their students’ listening comprehension skills.
Frequently, educators avoid teaching
pronunciation for the following three reasons:
1. It seems to be a difficult subject
for teachers to learn.
2. Only English native speakers can
teach it.
3. Students may find it boring.
The issue is, how valid are these
reasons? Let’s summarily analyse each of them:
1. Pronunciation seems to be a difficult
subject for teachers to learn.
Pronunciation is not really a strenuous
matter. Unfortunately, it is rather a topic which instruction does not go on
well done. Very frequently student-teachers are overwhelmed with phonetic
transcriptions without even understanding the difference between a phoneme and
an allophone. Pronunciation courses should start with an
understanding of the main phonological differences between English and
Spanish or with very important topics such as rhythm and intonation
, stress placement or sound assimilation, to mention only a few. How can
student-teachers be asked to transcribe a language without first being trained
in sound assimilation or on the rules for fast speech?
2. Only teachers who are English native
speakers can teach pronunciation.
It should be considered that when
teaching students which are older than 15 years of age, teachers need to
provide students with easy to follow instructions for pronouncing a given
sound. Without having a sound knowledge of the English phonological system and
its main differences with the Spanish one, English instructors will not succeed
at teaching pronunciation irrespective of being native or non-native language
trainers.
3. Students may find pronunciation
boring.
On the contrary. I have found that
students consider the learning of pronunciation as something “new” and quite
interesting and challenging. Indeed, my best classes have been the ones in
which my students learnt “vowel reduction” or compared the English intonation
pattern vs. the Spanish one. I believe that we must describe and explain in
class, in very simple terms, the main characteristics of the English
phonological system. Not only our students will have a better
knowledge of the target language (the language being studied) but their oral
production will be more accurate and clear, which will in turn have a positive
impact on their self-esteem and motivation to continue mastering this tongue.
Reference:
Biodata:
DE LA LAMA, MARIA Master´s Degree in Applied Linguistics and Bachelor´s Degree in
Theoretical Linguistics from the University of California; MBA
Universidad del Pacífico. Current Director at Centro de Idiomas de la Universidad del Pacífico.
