The Handbook of English Pronunciation

26Integrating Pronunciation into the Language Classroom

LAURA SICOLA AND ISABELLE DARCY

Introduction

Few language students are fortunate enough to have a class that is dedicated to the sole focus of studying pronunciation, and even fewer are able to take such a class with a teacher who is genuinely knowledgeable about English phonology and pronunciation pedagogy. Pronunciation is frequently relegated to the occasional side lesson in the context of a broader oral communication course or omitted entirely from the curriculum. This unsystematic and infrequent approach to pronunciation is insufficient for many learners to orally convey their messages intelligibly and effectively. This chapter will begin by looking at challenges faced by many “regular” ESL/EFL teachers regarding teaching pronunciation to frame the subsequent suggestions made for making pedagogical connections between pronunciation and teaching the other skill areas (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) within a communicative framework. To further contextualize the suggested strategies, we review the theoretical underpinnings of the value of communicative tasks in pronunciation instruction in an effort to guide practitioners in making pronunciation targets an inherent part of every lesson.¹

Challenges

Pronunciation difficulties in a second language (L2) can seriously impede intelligibility. Developing fluent speech and intelligible pronunciation plays a crucial role for L2 learners’ social and economic integration, ...