Филологические науки/ 3.Теоретические и методологические проблемы  исследования языка.

преподаватель английского языка Асанова А.С.

Казахстанский университет Дружбы народов

Pronunciation myths and facts

Many students and teachers have myths about what it means to learn and teach the pronunciation of English. These are four commonly held ones:

Learning the pronunciation of English means learning how to pronounce the individual vowel and consonant sounds.

There is much more to the pronunciation of English than its individual sounds. How these sounds are organized plays a greater role in communication than the sounds themselves. Two major organizing structures are rhythm and intonation.

The rhythm of English is created by the contrast in syllable lengths within words as well as across word boundaries. For example, in the word English, the first syllable Eng- is pronounced longer than the second syllable –lish. When we focus on the timing of syllables, we can see that the rhythm of the word English is identical to the rhythm of the words after and vision. Not only can words have identical rhythms but the rhythm of a word can be identical to the rhythm of a phrase; for example, festival and first of all. In fact, many novice learners of English have actually written festival when they heard first of all. English speakers rely as much on rhythm to identify words as on the consonant and vowel sounds. Sometimes, they pay attention to the rhythm more than sounds. A San Francisco newspaper columnist reported that a student went to the library to ask for a copy of John Steinbeck’s novel, Of My Cement. When we compare the rhythm of this mishearing to the rhythm of the actual title, Of Mice and Men, we can see that they are identical.

The lengthening of a syllable is conditioned by stress. In the word tumor the first syllable is stressed; therefore, it is longer than the second. Equally important as stressing a syllable is not stressing a syllable. If the second syllable of tumor is also stressed, and if the vowel of that syllable is incorrectly pronounced so that the syllable sounds like more, then a listener may hear the utterance as two words, as two more.

It is difficult, if not impossible, for students to hear and pronounce some sounds, such as the difference between the vowel sound in ship and the vowel sound in sheep. Therefore, it is useless to spend time on pronunciation.

Pronunciation is an integral part of language learning. The abandonment of pronunciation instruction has been based on the mistaken belief that pronunciation means only sounds, and on the failure of such a limited focus to affect learners’ overall pronunciation. As I have tried to show here, the scope of pronunciation is much broader than an inventory and description of sounds. It embraces the elements of rhythm and intonation, which function in the communication process. Thus, any learner with a goal of learning English for communicative purposes needs to learn the rhythm and intonation of English. The importance of pronunciation takes on even greater significance when we understand the connection between pronunciation and other aspects of language use. As listeners expect spoken English to follow certain patterns of rhythm and intonation, speakers need to employ these patterns to communicate effectively. Similarly, listeners need to know how speech is organized and what patterns of intonation mean in order to interpret speech accurately. Thus learning about pronunciation develops learners’ abilities to comprehend spoken English. Learning about pronunciation also helps learners with the spelling system of English. Novice learners expect to find a one-to-one correspondence between a sound and its spelling. However, the letter a, for example, can be pronounced five different ways, as these words demonstrate: same, sat, father, call, and about. Often a speaker’s difficulties with pronunciation originate from misinterpretation of the spelling system, rather than difficulty with the pronunciation of the sounds. A learner who expects the letter o to be pronounced like the word oh will be surprised to find that it is not pronounced that way in words like love, color and production.

Pronunciation, then, is not only important for oral communication, but it is closely linked with listening comprehension, spelling, grammar and reading. To ignore pronunciation is to ignore important information that can support these other skills.

Pronunciation instruction is boring.

Pronunciation teaching is not intrinsically boring. Perhaps pronunciation teaching has been boring because it has been done in a boring way. However, pronunciation teaching is not by nature boring. Teaching that does not involve the students’ intelligence is boring. Teaching that employs material that is irrelevant to the students is boring. Practice that is monotonous and unvaried is boring. A teacher who believes pronunciation teaching is boring is boring.

Nonnative speakers of English cannot teach pronunciation.

Nonnative speakers of English can teach pronunciation. Much of the concern about teaching pronunciation has centered around the exact pronunciation of vowel and consonant sounds. However, if the goal of teaching learners is to enable them to communicate in English, we can see that communicative effectiveness depends not only on the pronunciation of these vowel and consonants perfectly. While it is not unusual for teachers who are not native speakers of English to feel apprehension can be diminished and eliminated. Becoming educated about teaching pronunciation in its broader scope can make a big difference in a teacher’s feeling of confidence. In addition, nonnative speakers of English typically have an advantage over native speakers in that they can learn to perceive and manipulate rhythm and intonation more easily than native speakers, for whom these are unconscious features.

These four myths about teaching pronunciation have contributed to its general neglect in contemporary language pedagogy. In view of the fact that information about pronunciation supports not only oral-language development but the ability to interpret speech as well as the skills of reading and writing, pronunciation cannot be considered tangential to language learning; it should be treated as an integral part ort of the entire process. What many teachers have dreaded about pronunciation has been the undue attention to sounds. By attending to the broader features of pronunciation, which have a more immediate, discernible effect on communication, teachers will find that teaching pronunciation will be a much successful and satisfying experience.