Subject: Teaching Pronunciation

Name and surname(s): Martha Margarita Martnez Rangel

Login: MEFPMTFL1677568
Group: 2015-10
Date: February, 2017.

Name and surname(s): Martha Alejandra Morales Vargas

Login: MXFPMTFL1996963
Group: 2015-10
Date: February, 2017

Name and surname(s): Raquel Saucedo Ochoa

Login: MXFPMTFL1283311
Group: 2015-10
Date: February, 2017

Name and surname(s): Vanessa Patricia Llera Calcaneo

Login: MXFPMTFL2016571
Group: 2015-10
Date: February, 2017
 INDEX

Introduction .. 3

Whats is meant by intelligible?. 3

Is pronunciation really such an essential component of communicative competence?......................... 4

What percentage of the syllabus can be devoted to pronunciation?... 5

Do non-native speakers have the confidence to devote time to it?... 6

How do we go about teaching intelligible pronunciation? What resources (apart from human) would you
consider using? ........................................................................................... 8

Conclusion .. 9

Appendix ... 10

Bibliography ... 11

Participation in the debates....... 12

 INTRODUCTION

Pronunciation is an essential component of communicative competence Morley (1991). In what way

would Morleys quotation help public schools teachers to see that pronunciation is an important part of
the teaching process of a second language?

It is certain that an analysis of students context, L2 teachers aims, the type of students and teachers we
have at schools interacting and working at these public institutions are important aspects which have to be
taken into account. Some questions might arise while trying to incorporate pronunciation such as: To
what extent intelligible pronunciation would apply to the teaching of English at public schools? Are
teachers prepared to incorporate pronunciation as an essential component in their everyday practices?
Would the introduction of pronunciation have a positive effect?

In this paper we are going to give our opinion about some questions raised on the subject of intelligible
pronunciation, based on our personal experience and research about the topic.

INTELLIGIBLE PRONUNCIATION AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT

OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

a) What is meant by intelligible?

According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word intelligible has two meanings: capable of being
apprehended or understood; well-articulated or enunciated, and loud enough to be heard distinctly.

The term intelligibility refers to how clear your speech is or to what extent the listener is able to get the
speakers output. In general, intelligible speech needs to be clear, explicit, lucid, comprehensible and
precise. However, intelligibility can vary depending on the relationship between the speaker and the
listener. For example, parents are able to understand their children better than strangers. With this in
mind, we could consider that intelligibility is maintained as long as the listener recognizes the utterances
made by the speaker and the message is understood. In this sense, Munro (2011) asserts that
Intelligibility is the single most important aspect of all communication. If there is no intelligibility,
communication has failed. (p. 13)
When we talk about being intelligible, we have to consider both, segmental and suprasegmental aspects.
Speech goes beyond the level of the individual sound and aspects such as intonation, phrasing, stress,
rhythm are also important for intelligibility. Consequently, attention should be paid to the
multidimensional nature of L2 speech, rather than simply focusing on global accentedness.

Nowadays the goal of many ESL/EFL teachers is to help students have an intelligible pronunciation
instead of a native-like one as accent itself should be regarded as a secondary concern (Munro &
Derwing, 1995). To many people, the fact that someone can have an intelligible pronunciation, is not very
important, but for others it is of great importance. Especially for people who depend on this to do their
jobs. An example of this could be air traffic controllers, who depend on the intelligibility of the
instructions to avoid tragedies.

In addition, since English has become a global language, causing the development of many different
regional dialects, the pressure for international intelligibility is very strong, and given the fact that people
with different mother tongues are now using it as a means to communicate with each other, intelligibility
is now more important than attempting a native like pronunciation. Therefore, teachers need to lead
students to become aware of how sounds are made and model how being unintelligible can affect
meaning.

b) Is pronunciation really such an essential component of communicative competence?

To ignore or neglect the explicit teaching of pronunciation would be to ignore the basis for language
acquisition (Pennington, 1996). Pronunciation is an essential component because using the wrong sound,
adding or leaving out phonemes, stressing the wrong syllable in a word, using inaccurate or inappropriate
intonation patterns can alter the meaning of the message and communication mishaps take place.
However, it is important that teachers and students understand that teaching pronunciation does not mean
that the learners will acquire a native accent and this should not be aimed. The main focus should be on
being intelligible to prevent communication breakdowns.

Research has proven that pronunciation is essential for communicative competence. Morley (1991) states
the need for integrating pronunciation with oral communication by addressing students needs, changing
the emphasis put from segmentals to suprasegmentals, design meaningful communicative tasks and foster
group interaction. Baker (1992) states that students with an advanced English level can become proficient
in all areas and keep improving, except their pronunciation, and mistakes which they have been
repeatedly making will be very difficult to correct. Moreover, Gilbert (1984) thinks that listening and
pronunciation depend on each other because if the learner is not able to understand what is being said,
communication will not take place. If they are unable to express themselves intelligibly, communication
will not be successful.

Nooteboom (1983) believes that speech production is closely linked to the learners listening skills to
distinguish the specific sounds of certain phonemes. Therefore, we should integrate pronunciation with
communicative activities where students have the opportunity to enhance their oral skills by listening and
speaking.

In addition, Derwing, Munroe and Wiebe (1998) concluded that:

Attention to both global and segmental concerns benefits ESL students. In the case of a communication
breakdown caused by a mispronunciation, a student who has received segmental training might be able to
focus on the mispronounced form in a self-repetition. On the other hand, global instruction seems to
provide the learner with skills that can be applied in extemporaneous speech production, despite the need to
allocate attention to several speech components. (p. 407)

So as we can observe pronunciation is a vital aspect in communicative competence in order to transmit

the message in a comprehensible and effective manner. However, we should also consider learner goals
for pronunciation and address them progressively.

c) What percentage of the syllabus can be devoted to pronunciation?

Up to the moment it has been affirmed that pronunciation is an important part to include in our syllabus.
However, since there exists such a diversity of Englishes, a hybrid version would be needed. It has also
been said that the possibilities our students might have today of using English is more feasible than
twenty years ago. Apart from what has just been mentioned, there is another significant aspect that should
be addressed and that is the amount of time assigned in schools for formal teaching.

In public secondary schools in Mexico, the Official Calendar covers a total of 185 days of classes per
year, which is equivalent to 1,100 hours. From these, students have three English classes of 50 minutes
each per week, for a total of 138 classes a year. Therefore, only 10% of the Curriculum is assigned to
English teaching. Based on this reality, we should integrate Pronunciation as much as possible in all our
lessons. For example, if we are teaching past tenses, include an activity to practice pronunciation of
regular verbs in past. If we are working with lexis, address individual word stress; with functions,
intonation, etc. The purpose is to maximize the opportunities we have to incorporate pronunciation in our
teaching practice, without having to devote full classes to the teaching of pronunciation thus deviating
from the syllabus goals.

Despite the fact that teachers are always teaching pronunciation one way or the other, pronunciation is not
usually taught in an explicit way. It is mainly addressed through error-correction. While working on
listening tasks, we can lead our students to work on individual sounds or phoneme production to raise
students intelligibility, practise intonation, rhythm and stress in a contextualized way.

As teachers, we have to find the way to make pronunciation motivating for learners and at the same time
the rest of the skills and contents from the syllabus have to be taught. An idea to make this efficient is to
dedicate the first or last 5-10 minutes of the class to awareness and focus on pronunciation only. So we
can take a reading activity and focus on pronunciation rather than comprehension; or a speaking activity
in which we compare students utterances, use homophones, working with segmental and suprasegmental
aspects. These activities create awareness among the students. However, we should keep in mind that
pronunciation should be addressed in a global way and avoid tedious activities.

Therefore, we can include fun exercises to strengthen and develop students awareness of how sounds are
made and all the body parts involved. Including tongue twisters, songs, using Apps can lead students to
focus on their pronunciation and feel more motivated to do so.

In conclusion, teaching pronunciation should really have its own space in the syllabus, but the way
teachers decide to distribute it in their classes, will depend on the needs of each class, and it does not
necessarily mean taking time away from the teaching of all the other aspects of English.

d) Do non-native speakers have the confidence to devote time to it?

Much has been said about what is needed and how, but there is a part missing and that is teachers. Again
contextualization is an important part in this process of integrating pronunciation in public schools in
Mexico. It is important to point out or at least have a clear idea of what type of teachers we have in our
institutions and that would give a hint on what steps to follow for this implementation.

As non-native speakers, many of the public school teachers have not attended a teacher trainee course
which provides the necessary tools to teach a second language or they have never been in a real English
Speaking context or country, so, if this way of teaching already mentioned is transferred to the teaching of
pronunciation, there would be a contradiction to what Pennignton and Richards consider important about
having pronunciation in the classes (1986):
Pronunciation is seen as an important part of the interactional dynamics of the communication process.
According to this view, it is artificial to divorce pronunciation from communication and from other aspects
of language use, for sounds are a fundamental part of the process by which we communicate and
comprehend lexical, grammatical, and sociolinguistic meaning. (p. 208)

Therefore, it is clear that some non-native teachers do not have pronunciation knowledge or do not know
how to teach it. In addition, some may need to work with their own utterances and their own
pronunciation mistakes before trying to teach it explicitly. However, the key factor here is willingness and
motivation to improve and become a better English teacher. Once the EFL teacher is aware about the
importance of teaching pronunciation, he/she will do it and devote the time that is required to self-
improvement to later address pronunciation strategies to apply in the classroom.

Moreover, the advantage of being a non-native speaker is that you can easily notice and tackle the
pronunciation difficulties that your student will be facing as you have overcome them yourself. It is
important that the non-native teacher feels proud of his / her origin and does not feel incompetent if the
L1 accent can still be perceived when speaking a second language. If the teacher demonstrates this
confidence, students will show it too and will be focusing not on getting a foreign accent but pronouncing
accurately. Confidence is a vital aspect, many studies have shown that from the learners point of view it
is very important to communicate comfortably and effectively in spoken English, especially for students
living in a foreign country. When students feel uncomfortable with their pronunciation, they tend to lose
their confidence to speak. Therefore, it is essential that teachers help them boost their confidence by
providing opportunities to develop and practice their pronunciation skills in a safe environment.

A study made by Anderson & Souza (2012) showed that proficiency greatly influences the ability to
identify native language; that is, greater proficiency in the L2 leads to a greater ability to recognize
phonological deviations in the L2 pronunciation. This means that it is very important as EFL teachers to
work on our own pronunciation, as we mentioned before, with confidence and respect for our individual
accents and background, but with the intention to provide the best opportunities for our students to
improve their own pronunciation and succeed at communicating in an international English context.

e) How do we go about teaching intelligible pronunciation? What resources (apart from human)
would you consider using?
From a pedagogic point of view, Jenkins (2000) describes the Lingua Franca Core as her attempt ... to
scale down the phonological task for the majority of learners, by leaving to the individual learner's
discretion and to later acquisition outside the classroom the learning of peripheral details, and focusing
pedagogic attention on those items which are essential in terms of intelligible pronunciation. (p. 123)

Jenkins (2000, p. 134-157) narrows the phonological core for English as an International Language as
consisting of the following four features: 1) most consonant sounds, 2) appropriate consonant cluster
simplification, 3) vowel length distinctions and 4) nuclear stress (Appendix 1).

Thanks to technology, there are different and very useful Apps that we can use for teaching pronunciation
and addressing students individual needs. 3D Phonetics includes excellent tutorials with computerized
models to show graphically how to place the tongue, the teeth, the lips to produce specific phonemes.
Sounds includes an IPA chart that if you click in the IPA symbol you will hear the sound. This App is very
useful when you teach students to become familiar with these symbols when using a dictionary. Pron &
Phon includes different games that students can use to practice IPA symbols and have fun while
reviewing and learning.

Students can also participate at different international projects where they would have to make use of their
oral skills; this would lead them to concentrate not only in their grammar but in their pronunciation as
well, as they are going to be preparing a work for a real audience. This activity could go in hand with sites
such as an online dictionary or a Web 2.0 tool which would give them a hint on how a text can be
pronounced, such as www.voki.com. In this sense, one of the areas to cover is intonation, which
according to Chun, D. (1998):
It is fundamental to genuine communication because communicative competence is the ability not only to
formulate grammatically correct utterances, but also to signal interactional strategies, such as interrupting,
asking for clarification, taking the floor, changing the subject, concluding an argument or constraining a
hearer to reply. (p. 295)

It is important to mention that online resources can be very beneficial for teachers and students. However,
they require some computing knowledge and interest and not all institutions have the equipment
necessary to use them in class regularly. Younger generations of students can engage better with these
kinds of exercises because they are computer literate and teachers just need to become familiar and more
involved with technology.
Finally, we would like to share some websites that we have found useful for practicing pronunciation.
They have the phonemic chart, exercises to practice sounds, diphthongs, minimal pairs, stress, intonation,
among others:
http://www.manythings.org/pp/
http://www.cambridge.org/elt/resources/skills/interactive/pron_animations/index.htm
http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Pronunciation/

CONCLUSION

In our opinion, intelligible pronunciation is in fact essential for oral communication, as such, it should be
included in the syllabus and in the lesson plans of every L2 classroom. There are many aspects to
consider in order to succeed in helping our students develop a pronunciation that is intelligible, and which
will allow them to communicate effectively and confidently. For this to take place, non-native teachers
need to be willing to work on improving their own pronunciation.

Nowadays, due to globalization we are in contact with many different accents and regional dialects so the
aim should not be to attempt a native like pronunciation but rather to achieve international intelligibility,
that is to pronounce in such a way to be understood by people from different nationalities, native speakers
and non-native speakers alike.

To achieve this, there are many different activities and strategies that teachers can implement in class,
pronunciation must not be seen as an isolated skill but rather as an integrative part of learning English,
therefore these activities can help improve pronunciation while practicing listening or reading. There are
many different apps, web pages and programs that we can use making the practice or pronunciation fun
and interesting.
APPENDIX 1
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, T. K & Souza, B. J. (2012). English-Spanish bilinguals attitudes toward L2 pronunciation: Do they
identify with native Spanish speakers? Retrieved: February 10th, 2017 from
http://jlevis.public.iastate.edu/Proceedingsfrom3rdPSLLT

Baker, A. (1992). Introducing English Pronunciation: A Teachers Guide to Tree or Three? And Ship or Sheep?
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bott, A. (2005). Computer-aided self-access pronunciation materials designed to teach stress in American English.
Unpublished M.A thesis, Brigham Young University.

Chun, D. M. (1998). Signal Analysis Software for Teaching Discourse Intonation. Retrieved: February 15 th, 2017
from http://llt.msu.edu/vol2num1/article4/

Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., & Wiebe, G. E. (1998). Evidence in favor of a broad framework for pronunciation
instruction. Language Learning, 48, 393-410

Gilbert, J. (1984). Clear Speech. Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in American English. Teachers
manual and answer key. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hietatnen H. (2012). TEACHING THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE.

Suggestions for constructing a syllabus for Finnish learners [PDF file]. Retrieved: February 17th, 2017 from
https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/37939/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201206011775.pdf?sequence=1

Jenkins, J. (2000). The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Levis, J. & Moyer, A., Eds.(2012). Social influences in L2 pronunciation. Boston: Mouton de Gruyter

McKay, S., & Brown, J. D. (2016). Teaching and assessing EIL in local contexts around the world. New York:
Routledge.

Morley, J. (1991). The pronunciation component in teaching English to speakers of other languages, TESOL
Quarterly, 25(1), 51-74.

Munro, M. J. & Derwing, T. M. (1995). Perceptions of dialect change in the speech of adult Canadians living in
Alabama. Proceedings of the Canadian Acoustical Society.

Munro, M. J. (2011). Intelligibility: Buzzword or buzzworthy?. In. J. Levis & K. LeVelle (Eds.). Proceedings of the
2nd Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, Sept. 2010. (pp.7-16),Ames, IA: Iowa
State University

Noteboom, S. (1983). Is speech production controlled by speech perception? In van den Broecke et al. ed. Sound
structure. Studies for Antonie Cohen pp. 183-94. Dordrecht: Foris.

Pennington, M. C. (1996). Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach. Longman.

Pennington, M., & Richards, J. (1986). Pronunciation revisited. TESOL Quarterly, 20 (2), 207-226
The Importance of Proper Pronunciation (n. d.). Retrieved: February 18th, 2017 from http://saundz.com/the-
importance-of-proper-pronunciation/
 PARTICIPATION IN THE DEBATES

Martha Margarita Martinez Rangel (MEFPMTFL1677568): 5 contributions in debate 1: 3 on Thursday

February 16 and 2 on Friday February 17. Debate 2: 4 contributions: all of them on Monday February
20.

Martha Alejandra Morales Vargas (MXFPMTFL1996963): 2 contributions in debate 1 and 3 in debate 2

Debate 1: February 22nd (2 contributions)
Debate 2: February 22nd (3 contributions)

Vanessa Patricia LLera Calcaneo (MXFPMTFL2016571): 3 contributions in debate 1 and 2 in debate 2

Debate 1: February 11 (1 contribution) February 14th (1 contribution) February 16 (1 contribution)
Debate 2: February 10 (2 contributions)

Raquel Saucedo Ochoa (MXFPMTFL1283311): 9 contributions in Debate 1 and 9 in Debate 2

Debate 1: February 9th (2 contributions), 10th (1 contribution), 13th (2 contributions), 16th (1

contribution) and 19th (3 contributions)

Debate 2: Feb. 9th (1 contribution), 10th (1 contribution), 13th (2 contributions), 16th (1 contribution),

19th (3 contributions) and 21st (1 contribution)