Quality Teacher Education for Pronunciation Teaching in L2 Classrooms

Abstract

Quality education for teaching pronunciation involves multiple areas of knowledge and practical skills. This paper proposes knowledge and skill descriptors for Development Phase 1 teachers for six areas related to pronunciation teaching and learning: values and attitudes, context, methodology, resources, assessment, and independent learning. Teacher training programs should ensure that teacher trainees value all English varieties and adopt intelligibility as the goal of teaching. They should also know that teachers with required professional competencies and from any language background can teach pronunciation. Teacher trainees should be able to create a pronunciation teaching curriculum for their teaching context, combine various teaching resources, and have required content and pedagogical knowledge. They should also be able to assess learners’ pronunciation improvement, help learners track their learning, and assign appropriate individual work. The descriptors are useful for teacher training programs and for experienced teachers who are new to pronunciation teaching.