Pronunciation

When we teach English we need to be sure that our students can be understood when they speak. They need to be able to say what they want to say. This means that their pronunciation should be at least adequate for that purpose. In our teaching we will want to be sure that the students can make the various sounds that occur in the English language. We will help them differentiate between these sounds, especially where such distinctions change meaning (e.g., live [i] – leave [i: ]). We will also help them understand and use certain sound rules – e.g., the different pronunciations of the –ed past tense endings.

Students need to use rhythm and stress correctly if they are to be understood. We will make sure that when they learn new words they know where they are stressed. We will make sure that they are able to say sentences with appropriate stress. We will show them how stress can be used to change the meaning of questions, sentences and phrases. We will show them how to make pauses properly, for if we don’t pauses might be changing the meaning of what they here or say. E.g.: My wife, who lives in Minsk, is a doctor. / My wife who lives in Minsk is a doctor. How many wives does the speaker have? One? More than one?

Students need to be able to recognise intonation. At the very least they need to recognise whether the tune of someone’s voice suggests that the speaker is sure or uncertain. They need to understand the relationship between pitch and intonation. When we teach language we will try and ensure that students use it with intonation that is appropriate.

One issue that confronts us in the teaching of pronunciation is that of accent. In other words, we have to decide how important it is for our students to sound like native speakers of the language. Many teachers and students feel that the only realistic long-term goal of language learning is for a student to sound exactly like an American or an Englishman. A moment’s reflection, though, will show that this idea is rather worrying. In the first place, there are very few people who do not live in the TLC who will ever achieve this goal. In the second place, it is by no means certain that it is desirable to speak like a native speaker. The fact is that a student learning English in classes outside the TLC will rarely have sufficiently good models of the language throughout his learning life for such proficiency to be achieved. The older the student is, the more difficult it will be for him to break down pronunciation habits of his own native language, to overcome the lack of flexibility of his vocal cords.

It is worth pointing out that some learners seem more inclined to native-speaker-like pronunciation than others. A lot depends, too, on their contact with native speakers. If they live in TLCs they are more likely to acquire the accent of that community than if they do not.

So although a lot of time is spent on pursuing the elusive goal of getting students to have perfect pronunciation, to some extent this goal is in the students’ own hands. But anyway it may be an unrealistic and inappropriate one. Much more important is the goal of intelligibility and efficiency. In other words, our aim should be to make sure that students could always be understood to say what they want to say. They will need good pronunciation for this, though may not need to have perfect accents. The teaching of pronunciation should, therefore, aim to give students communicative efficiency.