Basic Principles of Teaching Foreign Pronunciation

Abstract

T HE importance of correct inconspicuous pronunciation is obvious. It is the first problem which faces the adult student of foreign language and which he has to solve quite satisfactorily. Usually speech habits are acquired in childhood by a rather long process which begins with the birth cry and goes through babbling, lalling and echolalia towards the true speech. The adult student, through years of speaking his mother tongue, acquires very fixed habits in using his organs of speech. But not only this: he also acquires the habits of hearing speech sounds. Therefore, when he hears a new foreign sound he tries to identify it as one of his own sounds. The foreign pronunciation seems to him very indistinct and exceedingly difficult. He can neither percept nor reproduce it because habitual hearing and articulation prevents to master new sounds. The question arises if it is possible for the adult student of a foreign language to overcome these obstacles. The answer must be positive as far as it is possible to improve and correct the pronunciation of the mother tongue of any adult whose speech mechanism is normal. The same methods and the same steps must be applied in both instances because the aim is to master the new unfamiliar speech habits and to develop the capacity to distinguish new speech sounds in hearing. However, the student must understand clearly the significance of the problem. He has to give it all his efforts and attention. It is to be mentioned here that unfortunately many Americans are lip-lazy speakers because they often utter words almost without opening their mouth, through the nose, in a too low voice, etc. This practice must be discouraged both in the mother tongue and in a foreign language. It is very helpful for the instructor to know his student's background. The place of his birth and education, mother tongue and knowledge of foreign languages, etc. are important circumstances in studying a foreign pronunciation. Then the teacher has to diagnose the possible individual difficulties of pronounciation of his students. Such difficulties may be either general, as slovenly articulation, or specific for some sounds. In every language the foreign sounds may be divided into three groups according to their difficulty: a) identical with the mother tongue, b) quite different, and c) resembling but not identical. The first group requires no attention if the sounds are pronounced correctly in the mother tongue. As for the second