That’s why I’ve decided to dedicate the upcoming blog posts to some of these materials. I’ll write a short summary of the content and then give a link to the article.
I’d like to start out with the perspective of a language learner. “Why pronunciation teaching should be the number one priority in a second language classroom” by Stefan Szocs, published in the January 2019 issue of EFL Magazine, advocates the need for pronunciation to be given a relevant and systematic place in the language classroom and gives good practical reasons for it. He also gives reasons why pronunciation has been such a neglected area.
Here are two statements that really caught my attention: “Second language pronunciation is based on intelligibility rather than trying to sound like a native speaker” and “Pronunciation teaching is not about the wrong or right accent, it is about finding the best ways to make students become familiar with the sounds, intonation and stress patterns of English which they can use with confidence“.
I believe that emphasizing the sounds and stress patterns with beginners is a must. After all, English is a stress-based language, so stress makes all the difference regarding intelligiblity and comprehensibility.
Read the article.
What are your thoughts on the content of the article? Leave your Comments below.
Enjoy pronunciation!
#pronunciation, #EFL/ESL, #language-learning, #teaching-pronunciation, #stefanszocs