Abstract
Pronunciation, despite being known as an important component of language learning, has not been awarded due attention within the field of language education. This article is a humble attempt to present an overview of the history of pronunciation teaching. Different approaches and methods of language teaching from the late nineteenth century into the new millennium are reviewed and discussed with regard to their stance in pronunciation instruction. Recent trends and issues of pronunciation teaching, e.g. intelligibility and Lingua Franca Core are also highlighted. Discussions like the present one might be beneficial in gaining a better understanding and evaluation of the status quo in order to improve and enhance the status of pronunciation instruction within language pedagogy.
Highlights
Any discussion about pronunciation teaching and research is likely to begin with an acknowledgement of its being marginalized and neglected within the profession of English language teaching
There is no explicit information or instruction on how to pronounce the sounds. This is the approach to pronunciation teaching adopted by the Direct method which was first proposed in the late 1800s and gained popularity in the early 1900s
As communicative approach flourished into its full bloom in 1980s resulting in an appreciation of pronunciation teaching and its importance among scholars and practitioners, and with the initiation of international communications and the formation of the “global civil society” (Castells, 2008, p. 78) after the cold war which further emphasized the value of comprehensible pronunciation, the first propositions of the intelligibility debate were advanced only to be fully discussed and exercised in the 1990s and into the new millennium
Summary
Any discussion about pronunciation teaching and research is likely to begin with an acknowledgement of its being marginalized and neglected within the profession of English language teaching. According to Derwing (2010) pronunciation is an element of language which is granted little weight, if not completely discounted, by the teacher in the classroom and it seems that “L2 teachers are somewhat intimidated by the idea of teaching pronunciation” Pronunciation has constantly changed position as various methods of language teaching have come and gone. We will try in this paper to offer a summary review of the changing patterns and perspectives in the teaching of the pronunciation component over time. Major methods and approaches of language teaching will be reviewed in a chronological order with respect to their stance in pronunciation instruction. Current issues and instructional strands in pronunciation teaching will be discussed
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