Bringing pronunciation instruction back into the classroom: An ESL teachers’ pronunciation “toolbox”

Abstract

Pronunciation is difficult to teach for several reasons. Teachers are often left without clear guidelines and are confronted with contradictory practices for pronunciation instruction. To date, there is no agreed upon system of deciding what to teach, and when and how to do it. Another challenge is the lack of immediate visible results, or a lack of carry-over: very often, students who practice a given pronunciation feature in class do well, but the minute they turn their attention to the message content, the practice effect vanishes. As a result of these difficulties, teaching pronunciation is often secondary, and teachers don’t feel comfortable doing it. Yet researchers and teachers alike agree that pronunciation instruction is important and efficient in improving intelligibility and comprehensibility. In this paper, we describe a new pronunciation curriculum for communication classes currently being designed for an intensive English program. Pronunciation instruction functions as a modular component fully integrated into the institutional learning outcomes across all levels of proficiency, addressing both the lack of carry-over, and the difficulty to teach pronunciation at early levels. Our goal is to provide teachers with enhanced confidence in applying strategies for pronunciation instruction that will contribute to their teaching “toolbox.”