Communicative pronunciation teaching: Insights from the Vietnamese tertiary EFL classroom

Abstract

As part of a larger study on teacher professional learning in pronunciation pedagogy, this qualitative study investigates how Vietnamese EFL teachers implement communicative pronunciation teaching in their English classes and how the teachers and students perceive the value of this teaching approach to student learning. Data were collected through classroom observations, individual semi-structured interviews with six EFL teachers and focus group interviews with 24 students (four students per group) at a Vietnamese university. The study adopted a content-based approach to qualitative data analysis. The findings show that the teachers constructed their pronunciation lessons with a variety of classroom tasks ranging from form-focused to meaning-focused practice closely following the teaching sequence as instructed in Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin’s (2010) communicative framework. The findings further show that both the teachers and students considered communicative pronunciation teaching an effective approach that has the potential to promote learners' pronunciation knowledge, foster their phonological ability and develop their listening and speaking skills. The study concludes with a discussion about implications for second language pronunciation teaching and learning.