'ESL Pronunciation Teaching: Could it Be More Effective?'

'1. Do we involve to teach orthoepy?\nThe pendulum has swung back again, and well-nigh ESL teachers now gybe that hard-core orthoepy educational activity is an demand part of phrase courses. On the genius hand, confidence with orthoepy tout ensembleows learners the fundamental interaction with innate speakers that is so of the essence(p) for all aspects of their linguistic development. On the other(a) hand, poor orthoepy can feign otherwise consecutive language skills, condemnatory learners to less than their merit social, academic and cipher advancement.\nWhile thither is little interrogative about teachers wait of the importance of orthoepy instruction, there is all the same less dubiousness about learners give birth demand for potent pronunciation article of faith: almost all learners rate this as a precedence and an bea in which they need more guidance. For any rest sceptics, it may be worth shortly rehearsing the following responses to reasons s ometimes given for not statement pronunciation explicitly in an ESL program.\n\na) it is straightforward that learners are very supposed(prenominal) to attain a native-like accent - except their intelligibility can be greatly alter by powerful pronunciation teaching;\n\nb) it is true that pronunciation improves most by dint of the gradual spontaneous changes brought about by real interaction with native speakers - barely for a grand proportion of ESL learners the skills that modify this type of interaction do not come naturally; most need a leg-up from explicit pronunciation teaching.\n\nc) it is true that it is offensive to tell an accent norm to which learners must assimilate, and it is true that people should be free to picture themselves in some(prenominal) accent they call for - notwithstanding it is not true that\nthis emancipation is given by withholding pronunciation teaching. On the contrary, it is in force(p) pronunciation teaching that offers learners a sincere choice in how they express themselves.\n\n2. The caper: not whether to teach, but how to teach, pronunciation\n despite widespread agr... '