Intelligibility in Pronunciation- An Essential Feature of Communicative Competence

 With the advent of Communicative Language Teaching CLT, the main goal of language teaching became to promote communicative competence. Nonetheless, fully communicative competence cannot be achieved without intelligible pronunciation. Most of the current literature emphasizes the importance of achieving this intelligibility “not as helping students to sound like native speakers but as helping them to learn the core elements of spoken English so that they can be easily understood by others” (Gilbert, 2008, p.1). However, in many English language classrooms, teaching pronunciation is granted the least attention (Gilakjani, Ahmadi,& Ahmadi, 2011). Even after years of exposure to the target language, the acquisition of intelligible English pronunciation is a barrier which impairs the effective communication process of adult Argentinian learners in a private institution in the city of Escobar, Buenos Aires.  The research questions which will guide this paper are the following:

1) Which factors can be hindering the process of acquiring an intelligible English pronunciation in this group of learners who started their instruction in adulthood?

2) What teaching strategies can be implemented in this classroom to facilitate the process of acquiring intelligible pronunciation?

The objective of this current paper is to identify the factors that may be preventing the acquisition process of intelligible English pronunciation in a group of adult students in the city of Escobar, Buenos Aires and to implement the prosody pyramid (Gilbert, 2008) as an instructional strategy to improve the current situation of this group to deal with the factor in which teachers can have a direct impact on- instruction.

 

 

 

A Pyramid to Encourage Intelligibility in the Classroom

Gilbert, J. (2008). The prosody pyramid. In J. Gilbert (Ed.), Teaching pronunciation: Using the prosody pyramid (pp.10-21). Cambridge University Press.

 

Lists the reasons why pronunciation is usually left aside in the classroom. Defines rhythm and melody as road signs when speaking. Claims that understanding rhythm involves paying attention to word stress and syllables composition as well. Highlights that the importance of prosodic instruction is further supported by research. States that segment-based instruction should not be eliminated but included as one part of the prosody pyramid. Establishes a close relationship between speaking and listening comprehension.  Concludes that without sufficient mastery of the English prosodic system learners’ intelligibility will not advance.

 

Factors Preventing the Goal of  Speech Comprehensibility

Pourhosein- Gilakjani, A. (2012). A study of factors affecting EFL learners' English pronunciation learning and the strategies for instruction. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(3), 119 -128. http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_3_February_2012/17.pdf

 

Affirms that limited pronunciation skills can decrease learner’s self-confidence. States that perfect pronunciation should no longer be the objective of teaching.  Identifies the main features of English pronunciation and highlights the importance of teaching suprasegmental features above segmental ones. Explains four factors which may affect the learning of pronunciation: attitude, motivation and exposure, instruction and exposure to target the language. Superficially discusses some general strategies for teaching pronunciation such as identifying features that cause problems to learners and making students aware of the prosodic features of English. Concludes that pronunciation can be one of the most difficult parts for students to master and one of the least favourite topics for teachers to teach.

 

 

 

 

Following Conventions: The Key to Success in the Academic World

According to Swales and Feak (1994), introductions should follow the Create a Research Space (CARS) model which consists of three moves. In the first move, named establishing a research territory, it is compulsory to review previous research. In the article under analyses (Arikan, 2011),  the author follows this instruction and cites four different sources on which he bases his paper. The second move, named establishing a niche, is achieved in this case by indicating a gap between the considerable support that teaching English to young learners has received and the challenge this implementation would represent in real practice; however the sentence chosen to write this move might be confusing because of its length and weak punctuation. At the end of the introduction in this paper, after indicating the gap, the author fails to state what the actual purpose of his paper is. This can be corrected by clearly stating the objective of the research at the end of the introduction, before the list of questions.

 In addition to this, this paper can be improved by including a more appealing title since the one chosen highlights the idea that the author will deal with a small-scale study and the results obtained would not be applicable in other situations.

Although there are some aspects to be polished up in this paper such as  the ones mentioned before, the author of this article has written an interesting introduction, including two of the moves proposed in the CARS model. He has also made a proper use of in-text citations following what the American Psychological Association (2020) establishes.

 

References:

 

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.  7th Edition.

Arikan, A. (2011). A small-scale study of primary school English language teachers’ classroom activities and problems. International Conference on New Trends in Education and Their Implications. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=A+SMALL-SCALE+STUDY+OF+PRIMARY+SCHOOL+ENGLISH+LANGUAGE+TEACHERS%e2%80%99+CLASSROOM+ACTIVITIES+AND+PROBLEMS&id=ED519176

 Gilakjani, A., Ahmadi, S., & Ahmadi, M. (2011). Why is pronunciation so difficult to learn? English Language Teaching, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v4n3p74

Gilbert, J. B. (2008). Teaching pronunciation: Using the prosody pyramid. Cambridge      University Press.

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. The University of Michigan Press.