HISTORY AND SCOPE OF PRONUNCIATION TEACHING

María José Rincón OchoaCristian Camilo López Zuleta

2 General Approaches of Teaching Pronunciation

AN INTUITIVE – IMITATIVE APPROACH

AN ANALYTIC – LINGUISTIC APPROACH

OTHER LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS

TIMELINE

PHON

OGRA

PH R

ECOR

DS

TAPE RECORDS

COMPACT DISCS

AUDIO – AND VIDEO CASSETTES

INTUITIVE – IMITATIVE APPROACH

A PHONETIC ALPHABET

CHARTS OF THE VOCAL APPARATUS

ANALYTIC – LINGUISTIC APPROACH

GRAMMAR TRANSLATION

READING - BASED APPROACHES

“The teaching of pronunciation is largely irrelevant.”

Late1800s& early 1900s

1940s & 1950s

1960s 1970s 1980s

DIRECT METHODTHE REFORM MOVEMENT

U.S.A AUDIOLINGUALISM BRITAIN – ORAL APPROACH

COGNITIVE APPROACH

THE SILENT WAYCOMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

DIRECT METHOD AND MORE RECENT NATURALISTIC APPROACHES

DIRECT METHOD- Foreign language instructions.- Pronunciation is taught through:

Intuition and Imitation

NATURALISTIC APPROACHES- Includes comprenhension methods.- Successors to direct method.

THE REFORM MOVEMENT It was influenced by phoneticians such as:

Wilhelm Viëtor

Henry Sweet

Paul Passy

THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET

NOTIONS AND PRACTICES RECOMMENDED BY THE PHONETICIANS

The International Phonetic Alphabet

NOTIONS AND PRACTICES RECOMMENDED BY THE PHONETICIANS:1.The spoken form of a language is primary

and should be taught first.

2.The findings of phonetics should be applied to language teaching.

3.Teachers must have solid training in phonetics.

4.Learners should be given phonetic training to establish good speech habits.

U.S.A AUDIOLINGUALISM BRITAIN – ORAL APPROACH

Pronunciation is very important.

Minimal Pair Drill

The teacher model a sound/word/ utterance

The students imitate or repeat

THE MINIMAL PAIR DRILL

Phoneme as a minimally distinctive sound.

The teacher asks individual students to read the lists without a model

Guides Oral Productionread down column A, then B read across the columns

Listening

Same or different? A or B

COGNITIVE APPROACH

Influenced by transformational – generative grammar and cognitive psychology.

THE SILENT WAY

Compare with Audiolingualism.

The Teacher.

The Sound – Color Chart.

The Set of Fidel Wall Charts.

•accuracy of production of sounds & structures from the initial stage

•individual sounds stressed•focused on how words combine in phrases

→sharpen learners’ inner criteria for accurate production

Same•the silent way learner focused on the sound

system without phonetic alphabet

Difference

HOW DOES THE SILENCE WAY WORK IN TERMS OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION?

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

For teaching second and foreign languages.

Rooted in the humanistic client – centered learning exemplified by Carl Rogers.

A typical lesson in a CLL classroom proceeds as follows.

CLL TOOLS.

students sit around a table with a tape recorder

the counselor stands behind one of the students

the counselor speak reassuringly

the counselor asks students say something that they want to speak in the target language

utterance is then provided by the teacher, the students repeat

when students produce fluently, it is recorded on tape

the utterance are played back

the students match it with translation provided by the counselor

the teacher asks if students need more practices

if yes, the counselor stands behind the students who requests

the teacher engaged as “human computer”- turn on/off at will by the student

THE AUDIO TAPE RECORDER

THE HUMAN COMPUTER TECHNIQUE

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH The primary purpose of language is communication.

Bring renewed urgency to the teaching of pronunciation.

Not to make them sounds like native speakers.

Is to enable learners to surpass the threshold level.

English Language Learners

1. Foreign Teaching Assistant

2. Foreign – Born Technical

4. Refugees

3. International Business People and Diplomats

5. Teacher of English as a Foreign Language

6.People in non – english – speaking contries

How can teachers improve the pronunciation of unintelligible speakers of English so that they become intelligible?

Reviewing the kinds of techniques and practice materials

Listen and imitate Phonetic training Minimal pair drills Contextualized minimal pairs visual aids tongue twisters Developmental approximation drills Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related

by affixation Reading aloud/recitation Recordings of learners’ production

“… A short term pronunciation course should focus first and foremost on suprasegmentals as they have the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of the learner’s English. We hace found that giving priority to the suprasegmental aspects of English not only improves learners’ comprehensibility but ir also less frustrating for students because greater change can be effected in a short time.”

McNerney and Mendelsohn

¡GRACIAS!