Abstract
Pronunciation, though often considered important by teachers and students, receives scant attention in language classrooms and curriculum around the world (Derwing and Rossiter, 2002; Henderson et al., 2012). English Pronunciation Research and Teaching: Contemporary Perspectives by Martha C Pennington, Professorial Research Associate in Linguistics at SOAS, University of London and Research Fellow in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck University of London, and Pamela Rogerson-Revell, Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of Leicester, sets out to widen perspectives and deepen understanding of contemporary pronunciation teaching and research.
As the broad title suggests, this book takes a comprehensive look at the state of contemporary pronunciation teaching and research, taking into account the shifting views of the relevance and importance of pronunciation in language teaching and research in the twenty-first century. The book goes into considerable depth in its eight chapters and offers insights into the nature of pronunciation (Chapter 1), the framing of pronunciation teaching (Chapter 3), pronunciation in the classroom (Chapter 4), using technology for pronunciation teaching (Chapter 5), assessing pronunciation (Chapter 6), and the wider relevance of pronunciation beyond the classroom (Chapter 7). Throughout the chapters, the authors emphasize the importance of relating practice to research and research to practice and this is the unifying thread running through the book.
Of particular interest to teachers and curriculum designers is the third chapter, Framing the Teaching of Pronunciation, which looks at the historical development of pronunciation pedagogy and the rapidly shifting contexts of English in the twenty-first century. This chapter offers a useful systemic basis for teachers, teacher-trainers and curriculum designers to make decisions relating to pronunciation teaching, taking into account pronunciation models and goals and establishing a phonological core for intelligibility into curriculum. This chapter can be used as a guide to decide teaching priorities taking into account learner needs, areas of pronunciation which may need to be prioritized and the teachability-learnability of pronunciation features, critical in the design of curriculum in specific classroom contexts where time is often at a premium.
Of further interest to teachers is the fourth chapter, Pronunciation in the Classroom: Teachers and Teaching Methods, which follows the preceding chapter’s theme of what to teach and investigates how and when to teach pronunciation. These questions crucially need to be addressed given the view frequently held by researchers and classroom practitioners that pronunciation ‘gets too small a piece of the language teaching pie’ (Levis, 2007: 197). Many teachers lack the confidence, knowledge and skills required to teach pronunciation and agree there is a need for greater professional development and improved teaching resources to support them (Henderson et al., 2012; MacDonald, 2002; Thomson, 2011). The authors claim that although this situation is unlikely to change dramatically, there is reason for some optimism, particularly now there is a greater awareness of the importance of pronunciation for candidates taking high-stakes tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Pearson English Language Test (PTE-A). This awareness is seeping its way into curriculum, with methods and strategies such as shadowing, the teaching of articulatory settings, corrective feedback and critical listening used more frequently. The authors argue convincingly that although research indicates that teaching pronunciation can have a positive effect, more research needs to be done in order to provide curriculum developers, textbook writers and teachers with sufficient evidence to make informed and confident choices about the efficacy of particular techniques and what to teach for improving pronunciation.
The growth of Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) is covered in depth in the fifth chapter, which highlights opportunities for pronunciation learning along with some of the problematic issues associated with current CAPT software. Classroom technologies are reviewed critically including mobile apps such as Sounds and Clear Speech, which offer increased utility, although they have weaknesses in offering meaningful feedback and diagnoses of errors; and automatic speech recognition (ASR) software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking and Pronunciation Power, which offer exciting opportunities, but have problems dealing with diverse accents. The review of embodied conversational agents (ECAs), offers a tantalizing glimpse of future possibilities, with research showing improvements to pronunciation among students using 3-D talking heads. The authors suggest that much of the commercially available CAPT software is driven by technology rather than pedagogy and much of the software lacks the pedagogic grounding required for effective learning. Crucially, the book argues that many CAPT programmes do not offer learners quality, accurate feedback and are unable to give accurate diagnoses of pronunciation errors. The chapter demonstrates effectively and comprehensively that more needs to be done to improve the technological capabilities of pronunciation software and that more thought needs to be put into pronunciation pedagogy and design of CAPT software.
The challenges of assessing pronunciation effectively are covered in the sixth chapter with an analysis of the complexity of assessing pronunciation. Speaking tests with a pronunciation component such as IELTS and Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE, now known as C1 Advanced) are reviewed in the chapter. However, it would have been interesting to have an analysis of the computer-based PTE-A test, a high-stakes test increasingly used for migration and university admission, and assessed using automated scoring systems. It would have been good to learn whether this computer-based assessment has successfully been able to measure prosody, overcome limitations of examining shorter stretches of speech and the limitations of featuring no collaborative or open-ended speaking tasks. In reviewing standardized tests, the authors convincingly argue there is a greater need in pronunciation assessment to include pronunciation pragmatics to assess pronunciation proficiency as required for interactional competence (Young, 2000) and reciprocity (Bygate, 1987) in order to address perception and expression of rapport, identity and accommodation.
Pronunciation beyond the classroom is looked at in the seventh chapter, which highlights the importance not only of pronunciation for intelligibility for everyday living, but also in the wider social context of how people demonstrate their identity and position themselves in communicative situations. The chapter illustrates that ‘phonological problems regularly get in the way of successful communication in international contexts’ (Jenkins, 2000: 78). This a major issue given the frequency with which people around the world with different native languages (L1s) now communicate in English in high stakes situations from diplomacy and finance to healthcare. The authors give an example of how a misunderstanding due to differing perceptions of the placement of stress could have severe implications in a healthcare context and they describe how a foreign accent can decrease comprehensibility, impede intelligibility and affect sales in important business meetings. The chapter demonstrates that in our globalized world, workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse and the importance of being able to accommodate linguistic and phonological variation is growing. Whilst speakers need to be able to speak clearly and effectively to diverse audiences, listeners increasingly have to be able to accommodate diverse accents and phonological variation.
A key theme of the book is the importance of relating research to practice. Researchers need to be able to provide grounded evidence to help teachers make decisions about what and how to teach pronunciation, and teachers need to consider the research and evaluate their own teaching practices, taking the time to conduct action research, thus forming an intermediary bridge between the worlds of teaching and research. The writers have comprehensively positioned pronunciation teaching and research in the contemporary landscape with a thorough analysis of the attitudes and beliefs of teachers, the state of CAPT and pronunciation assessment and the wider importance of pronunciation relating to daily life in our increasingly globalized world. The two case studies found at the end of Framing the Teaching of Pronunciation (Chapter 3) illustrating ways that pronunciation teaching can meet student needs in different contexts, provide a useful overview of how teachers can address needs learner needs according to context. From the point of view of the classroom practitioner, the inclusion of more detailed case studies in the book, particularly on including technology for teaching pronunciation, would have been useful and enriching.
The book consistently demonstrates that though pronunciation teaching is widely held to be valuable, there is much more work to be done to connect research and practice to ensure pronunciation teachers and curriculum developers can make confident decisions about what, why and how to teach pronunciation effectively. The book is an ideal starting point for teachers and teacher-trainers with a foundation in pronunciation teaching and research who are interested in gaining a wider and deeper perspective of the field and classroom practitioners and researchers looking for ideas for new and useful areas of research.
