- guardian.co.uk, Friday September 22 2006 23.55 BST
Most students enjoy and want pronunciation in their classes. It is also something that teachers can have fun doing. However, when it comes to "serious learning", pronunciation is often moved down the list of lesson priorities. Teachers give many reasons for its omission from their lessons: "It takes too long." "It wasn't in the book." "I can't hear the difference, so how will my student?" "They 'do' pronunciation at home."
The problem with these and similar responses is that students require and appreciate our help with pronunciation, and it needs to be integrated into any lesson in which we are dealing with speaking or listening.
Many training courses are probably at fault for not adequately equipping trainees with the skills they need. In the time-pressured environment of many training courses it can fall by the wayside. Pronunciation teaching requires a great deal of knowledge of how sounds are produced, how words are stressed and what governs intonation patterns. Teachers also need a range of techniques and skills to respond to the pronunciation needs of individual learners.
The lack of pronunciation in the design of many course syllabuses and materials exacerbates the problem. Grammar and vocabulary remain the driving principle behind most courses. Pronunciation, if it appears at all, is added in here and there.
A recent key debate in ELT that has also had an impact on pronunciation is the issue of international English. In the past a teacher could say (or play a recording of) a sentence and students would repeat it. This assumed that there was a correct model of spoken English to aspire to. However, as the concept of a standard English (such as "British English" or "American English") is called into question and students are increasingly communicating in other varieties of English, the question of which model to offer becomes more complex. The result is often that pronunciation is simply not taught.
There are two ways in which teachers might re-approach pronunciation. The first is to aim for intelligibility rather than "correctness". This accepts that the speaker may have an "accent", but that he or she can be understood. This view of pronunciation has filtered into many areas of English language training already.
The new language proficiency rating scale for air traffic controllers is notable because it brings pronunciation to the fore of evaluating the speaker. The scale is to be enforced by March 2008. At operational level pilots and air traffic controllers (both native and non-speakers) must demonstrate that their pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation, although influenced by the first language or regional variation, rarely interfere with ease of understanding. So in a field where pronunciation can be a matter of life and death, intelligibility is rated more highly than reproducing a standard.
If the shift to intelligibility is already taking hold, there is a second change that may be less readily accepted. Traditionally pronunciation has been regarded as part of "speaking". In fact it is more essentially part of "listening". While we accept that a student can speak with a strong accent, students won't operate at work if they are unable to cope with the features of pronunciation that affect listening to varieties of speech.
Richard Cauldwell runs a research-led business that produces listening and pronunciation materials taken from recordings of everyday spontaneous speech. "There is a tradition of regarding speech as following a set or rules rather than helping learners cope with real speech," he says. Cauldwell believes that teaching pronunciation should be about helping learners to cope with real speech and therefore developing students' listening strategies. "Pronunciation- and listening are two sides of same coin."
He adds that including listening exercises in lessons doesn't necessarily mean teachers are developing either listening or improving pronunciation. "We [teachers] have developed a way of kidding ourselves we're teaching listening when we aren't."
When we play a recording and give students a set list of comprehension questions, we are testing their understanding but may be failing to develop listening. What may help is to take the listening and identify what is happening to the pronunciation during the speech. This might include looking at which syllables are lengthened, which words sound as if they are joined together, or recognising sounds that change according to their position in the sentence.
This change in perspective - from one of a pronunciation with rules and norms to one that is unpredictable and about coping strategies - will not necessarily be embraced. "In language teaching there is always resistance to something that isn't rule-driven," Cauldwell says.
The growth in computer-based materials may mean that students working alone are better equipped than before to take on these changes. At a basic level CD-rom versions of dictionaries allow the user to click on a new word and hear the pronunciation. Other software lets students record their voice and compare it to a model version. At a more complex level, Cauldwell's recordings of real speech allow students to analyse spoken language on their own at home. He would argue that private study of this kind may be more suitable than classroom or group-based work, since the learner's weaknesses aren't exposed to a class and it offers the chance to reflect and experiment.
ELT publisher David Riley adds: "In the long term, language learning software incorporating voice recognition routines will make pronunciation a self-study area."
These emerging trends shouldn't offer teachers the opportunity to opt out of pronunciation altogether, but should encourage us to re-evaluate our role. Our job will be to develop students' ability to negotiate what they hear. It will require greater access and guidance to individualised study and relevant continuing training for teachers.
Richard Cauldwell runs www.speechinaction.com with more about "real speech" at www.speechinaction.net. For a copy of the language proficiency rating scales for pilots and air traffic controllers click here
