The History and Scope of Pronunciation Teaching

M99C0101 梁馨予

2 General Approaches of Teaching Pronunciation- Modern Language

An intuitive-imitative approach

• The learner’s ability to listen to and imitate the rhythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention of any explicit information

• presuposes the availability of good models to listen to

An analytic-linguistic approach

• Utilizes the information and tools to supplement listening, imitation, and production

• Informs the learner of and focuses attention on the sounds and rhythms

• Complement the intuitive-imitative approach

Late 1800s & early 1900s

Direct Method

1977

Total Physical Response (TPR)

1983

Natural Approach

1940s & 1950s

U.S.A- AudiolingualismBritain-Oral Approach

1960s

Cognitive Approach

1970s

•The Silent Way•Community Language Learning(CLL)

1980s

Communicative Approach

Development of Pronunciation Teaching

Direct Method and More Recent Naturalistic Approaches

Direct Method

• first gained popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s

• pronunciation is taught through intuition and imitation

• grounded on observations of children learning L1

naturalistic methods

• successors to the direct method

• Asher(1977)-total physical response, Krashen & Terrell(1983)-natural approach

• focus on listening without pressure to speak gives the learners the opportunity to internalize the target sound system

The Reform Movement

• emerges in the 1890s-first linguistic or analytic contribution to the teaching of pronunciation

• influenced by phoneticians- Henry Sweet, William Viëtor, Paul Passy

• 1886- Henry Sweet, William Viëtor, Paul Passy formed the International Phonetic Association and developed the International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA)

Influence modern language teaching

• The spoken form of a language is primary and should be taught first.

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

• Teachers must have solid training in phonetics.

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

The 1940s and 1950sAudiolingualism & The Oral Approach

• Pronunciation is very important

• Pronunciation is taught explicitly from the start

• Te teacher also makes use of information from phonetics and the “minimal pair drill”

The minimal pair drill

• drills that use words that differ by a single sound in the same position

• base on the concept of the phoneme as a minimally distinctive sound

The 1960sCognitive Approach

• influenced by transformational-generative grammar and cognitive psychology

• viewed language as rule-governed behavior

• deemphasized pronunciation in favor of grammar and vocabulary because

– native pronunciation was an unrealistic objective

– time would be better spent on teaching more learnable items

The 1970s

• The Silent Way

• Community Language Learning

The Silent Way

Compare with Audiolingualism

The Silent Way- The Teacher

• speak as little as possible

• indicating through gestures-elaborate system

– tap out rhythmic patterns with a pointer

– hold up their fingers to indicates the number of syllables

– indicate stressed element/model proper positioning of the articulation by pointing to their lips, teeth ,or jaw

• use several indispensable tools of the trade

– sound-color chart

– the fidel charts

– words charts

– colored rods

The Silent Way- The sound-color chart

• contains all the vowel and consonants sounds in small colored rectangle

• upper half of the chart are the vowels

– primary vowels → one color each, diphthongs → two colors

• consonants are located in the bottom half of the chart

– colors are assigned randomly

The Silent Way- The set of Fidel wall charts

• Contains all the possible spelling patterns for each sound

• Each letter or combination of letters is color coded

The Silent Way- The set of Fidel wall charts

The Silent Way- Word Charts

• Reflect and reinforce the system used in the sound-color chart

• Contains common words of the target language

• of varying length

• red rods being the same size, white the same size, and so on

• used for many purposes

– focus in pronunciation

• to build and visually demonstrate intonation patterns

• indicate the differing pronunciations of morphological endings

The Silent Way- A Set of Small Colored Blocks

• have special focus on teaching pronunciation

• principle of sound-color correspondence provides learners with an “inner resource to be used”

The Silent Way-Discussion

Community Language Learning (CLL)

• rooted in the humanistic client-centered learning exemplified

Community Language Learning (CLL)

Community Language Learning (CLL)

The audiotape recorder

• captures what students said

• provides a way for students to distance themselves, focus in how it was said and compare their pronunciation with the counselor

The human computer technique

• gives no overt correction of pronunciation

• allows the student to initiate pronunciation practice by selecting the items

Community Language Learning (CLL)- Tools

Pronunciation Teaching Today- Communicative Approach

• took hold in the 1980s

• the primary purpose of language is communication

• bring renewed urgency to the teaching of pronunciation

• there is a threshold level of pronunciation for nonnative speaker

– goal of teaching pronunciation is not to make them sounds like native speakers

– is to enable learners to surpass the threshold level

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

Reviewing the kinds of techniques and practice materials(1)

• Listen and imitate: used in the Direct Method, enhance by the use of tape recorder, language lab, and video recorders

• Phonetic training: use of articulatory descriptions, articulatory diagrams, and phonetic alphabet

• Minimal pair drills: introduced in the Audiolinguial, begin with word-level drills and then mover on to sentence-level drills

• Contextualized minimal pairs: the teacher establish the setting and presents key vocabulary, students respond to a sentence stem with the appropriate meaningful response

• visual aids: sound-color charts, Fidel wall charts, rods, pictures, mirrors, etc.

• tongue twisters: from speech correction strategies

• Developmental approximation drills: L2 speakers are taught to retrace the steps that native children speaker acquire L1

• Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation: used with intermediate or advance learners

• Reading aloud/recitation: focusing on stress, timing, and intonation

• Recordings of learners’ production: offers opportunities for feedback

Reviewing the kinds of techniques and practice materials(2)

View of teaching pronunciation today

• an inability to distinguish sounds that carry a high functional load

• an inability to distinguish suprasegmental features

• Have a negative impact on the oral communication

• today’s pronunciation curriculum

• seeks to identify the most important aspects of both the segmental and suprasegmentals

• integrate them appropriately in courses

• the issue of voice quality setting

View of teaching pronunciation today