Teaching Pronunciation: The Lost Ring of the Chain

Abstract

Recent developments in the literature provide us with a better understanding of the importance of second language pronunciation teaching which has been intermittently downplayed for years. This study aims at describing and understanding the different approaches to teaching pronunciation. It first gives an account of different views on pronunciation and its teachability. Then segmental and suprasegmental features and their place in language teaching programs are brought to notice. Since achieving settlement in whether teachers should set native-like accent or a fluent but accented style of speaking as the target in the pronunciation teaching programs has remained a thorny issue, a discussion of the related lines of arguments is presented. Finally, the future directions and consequent problems are discussed in the light of findings. Index Terms—teaching pronunciation, teachability, segmental and suprasegmental features, accent