teaching pronunciation

Teaching Language Systems 

Pronunciation and spelling 

Why do we teach pronunciation? 

“ A learner who consistently mispronounces a 

range of phonemes can be extremely difficult 
for a speaker from different language 
community to understand. This can be very 
frustrating for the learner who may have a 
good command of grammar and lexis but have 
difficulty in understanding and being 
understood by a native speaker.“ 

Kelly ( 2000) 

The aims of teaching pronunciation 

INTELLIGIBILITY - ´being understood by a listener 
at a given time in a given situation´  - aiming at 
something ´close enough´                  (Kenworthy, 1992, p. 
13) 

not to achieve a perfect imitation of a native 
accent, but to get the learners to pronounce 
accurately enough to be easily and comfortably 
comprehensible to other speakers.                               
(Ur, 1996, 52); 

What pronunciation model to teach 

Received pronunciation RP  
Queen’s English/BBC English 
-south-east England UK variety; typical feature 

elisions (comfortable), weak forms, lack of ´r´ 
sound (car, hard) 

 
Teachers should use the model which is close to  
the language used outside the lesson.  

Factors that influence acquisition of 
reasonable pronunciation in English 

The learner‘s native language - a particular 
sound may not exist in their MT , Ss have a 
tendency to substitute by the nearest equivalent 
known e.g. My friend is sick x My friend is thick. 
Or they merge eg. reach x rich /i:/x /i/ 
The learner’s age – the younger the age  the 
better for the learner’s pronunciation 
The learner’s exposure- in terms of  length and 
intensity 

The learner’s innate phonetic ability  
 
The learner’s aptitude and sense of identity 
 
Learner’s motivation and concern for good 
pronunciation. 
 

Problems and approaches in 

pronunciation teaching 

There are two key problems with pronunciation 

teaching 

       It is neglected   
 
 

It is not neglected  but tends to be reactive