چکیده:
One essential yet often-ignored factor in pronunciation teaching is learners’ beliefs towards teaching and learning of pronunciation. Awareness of this factor can help both learners and teachers achieve their language learning and teaching objectives. The current study investigated 195 Iranian EFL learners’ beliefs and perceptions about various aspects of pronunciation teaching and learning. The learners answered a 30-item Likert-scale online questionnaire which inquired about their views regarding the overall importance of pronunciation instruction, the type of syllabus, the design of classes devoted to pronunciation, the introduction of pronunciation features, the ways of practicing these features, and the role of error correction. To enhance the findings from the questionnaire, the researchers interviewed a subsample of the participants about various pronunciation dimensions specified in the questionnaire. Results revealed that the majority of the participants believed teaching and learning pronunciation was of paramount importance in EFL contexts as it helped them achieve their communicative goals more effectively. The learners also largely preferred a structural over a task-based syllabus for pronunciation instruction but differed regarding whether pronunciation features should be taught in isolation or in communicative contexts, and whether correction of their pronunciation errors should be done by the teacher or peers. Findings of this study can inform the mainstream pronunciation teaching and learning practices and materials designs.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The learners answered a 30-item Likert-scale online questionnaire which inquired about their views regarding the overall importance of pronunciation instruction, the type of syllabus, the design of classes devoted to pronunciation, the introduction of pronunciation features, the ways of practicing these features, and the role of error correction.
Results revealed that the majority of the participants believed teaching and learning pronunciation was of paramount importance in EFL contexts as it helped them achieve their communicative goals more effectively.
The learners also largely preferred a structural over a task-based syllabus for pronunciation instruction but differed regarding whether pronunciation features should be taught in isolation or in communicative contexts, and whether correction of their pronunciation errors should be done by the teacher or peers.
More specifically, the study seeks to find the answer to the following question: What are the Iranian EFL learners’ beliefs concerning: the overall value of pronunciation instruction, the choice of the syllabus, the design of the classes devoted to pronunciation, the introduction of the pronunciation features, the ways of practicing these features, and the role of error correction in this area?
The latter findings are promising in two respects: first, learners seem to becoming increasing aware that the ability to use newly acquired pronunciation features in meaningful communicative activities is a more reliable test of their learning, especially given the importance of comprehensibility and intelligibility over nativeness or nativelikeness as a more attainable goal for L2 within the current English as an international language paradigm (Jenkins, 2000, 2005).
Teaching pronunciation: An independent study course for teachers of adult English as a second language learners.