Abstract
The aim of this study is to discuss whether explicit teaching of English pronunciation in second language (L2) and English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms is helpful for learners or not. This study aims to review the studies on pronunciation teaching to synthesize the literature. In this way, connections between research and practice will be formed and the implications for language teaching will be mentioned. In this study, a literature review (of around 40 articles, books and book chapters) has been done first and then, in accordance with the findings, the emerging themes (e.g. intelligibility, Lingua Franca Core and students’ background) from the review were further reviewed and a synthesis is provided taking the findings regarding different perspectives into consideration. The results suggest that recently pronunciation teaching has shown great improvements and the aims of it have changed from attaining a native-like proficiency to being intelligible. The review suggests that the aim of pronunciation teaching should be to teach for functional and meaningful contexts and it should be a part of communicative approaches to provide students with a fluent speech. The findings also suggest that the focus in explicit pronunciation teaching should be on not only perception, but also production and only the relevant and useful parts of phonology should be taught to learners.
Highlights
Kelly (1969) calls pronunciation teaching the Cinderella of foreign language teaching as it has not been studied thoroughly unlike grammar and vocabulary components of languages
The Communicative Approach was against pronunciation teaching in the 80s, pronunciation teaching can be incorporated into communication and learned phonology can be converted into fluent speech by taking part in various communicative activities
The issues around pronunciation teaching and its history has been presented first and whether pronunciation should be taught explicitly in English L2/English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms has been discussed via reviewing the literature from the perspective of those who support and oppose pronunciation teaching
Summary
Kelly (1969) calls pronunciation teaching the Cinderella of foreign language teaching as it has not been studied thoroughly unlike grammar and vocabulary components of languages. Pronunciation studies and pronunciation teaching have experienced an immense increase in popularity (Atli & Bergil, 2012; Demirezen, 2010; Derwin & Munro, 2015; Gimson, 1994; Scarcella & Oxford, 1994; Silveria, 2013). Despite this proliferation, various approaches and methods took pronunciation teaching into consideration differently. This paper aims to review research on pronunciation teaching to synthesize the literature. In this way, connections between research and practice will be formed and different views on pronunciation teaching will be discussed. The comparison and contrast of the studies which support and oppose explicit teaching of pronunciation will be presented and the implications of this discussion for L2/EFL pronunciation teaching will be mentioned
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