Abstract
This article concerns itself with the identification of language units essential to the intelligibility of communication of non-native English speakers (NNESs) in international settings, or English as an international language (EIL) communication. It focuses on a seemingly narrow but nevertheless significant area of speech production and reception – pronunciation. Based on the works of pronunciation scholars and classroom experience, we outline areas of concern for NNES training and suggest pronunciation foci for Russian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). We specifically examine areas where academic discourse goals overlap with the goals of developing NNES pronunciation fluency and rhetorical competence, targeting those features that, if improved upon, would make NNES speech sound intelligible, educated and cultured as the academic environment requires. We consider these features in view of their importance for two emerging pedagogical domains: English as a lingua franca (ELF) and English as a medium of instruction (EMI), particularly taking into account their approach to NNESs’ identity and attitude.
Highlights
This article concerns itself with the identification of language units essential to the intelligibility of communication of non-native English speakers (NNESs) in international settings, or English as an international language (EIL) communication
Unlike conventional English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) approaches, EIL/English as a lingua franca (ELF) focuses on pragmatic competences and international communication strategies, where, for successful communication, more importance is placed on discourse intelligibility than native-speaker-like fluency
Having investigated prosodic errors of Russian learners in their academic presentations that hinder communication, we came to the conclusion that, to a large extent, intonational preferences of Russian speakers stem from differences in phonotactics, which in their turn affect prominence and rhythm
Summary
This article concerns itself with the identification of language units essential to the intelligibility of communication of non-native English speakers (NNESs) in international settings, or English as an international language (EIL) communication. Such pedagogies are mainly centered around teaching one of the two most prestigious NES varieties, British or American, with most textbooks focusing on either of them Nowhere is this dichotomy more apparent than with English pronunciation, a discrepancy that has triggered vigorous debate on two as yet unresolved ELT questions: Which English language pronunciation standard should be chosen as a learning goal toward the ultimate realization of EIL intelligibility, and which segmental and suprasegmental elements of pronunciation hinder international communication due to L1/L2 transfer. As a result of regional and social mobility, it is next to impossible nowadays to find a native speaker in possession of the ‘pure’ standard variety, not to mention that some regional native accents are stigmatized, too, for example, Scottish or Irish This is another reason why, besides linguistic and pragmatic factors, ELT scholars are drawing more attention to a more comprehensive approach for suggesting pronunciation elements of an EIL standard and take into consideration the L1 sociocultural context as well (Sedlehoffer, 2000; Walker, 2010)
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