TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
The specifity of teaching adults Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)
Krashen’s monitor model for adult second language performance
Attention, memory and motivation
The characteristics of pronunciation
What is pronunciation?
The importance of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation
What type of pronunciation should be taught?
Interference
Aspects of pronunciation
Intonation
Rhythm
Stress
Classroom techniques in teaching English pronunciation
Pronunciation practice and teaching listening comprehension
The use of transcription
Minimal pairs
Face diagrams
Role play
Experiment
Final conclusions
Bibliography
Appendix
INTRODUCTION
“Speech is a mirror of the soul:
as a man speaks, so is he.”
Publius Syrus, ‘Maxim’ 1073
The primary purpose of language is to communicate. The communication is most often in writing, but more frequently it is in speech. If ‘speech is unintelligible, the act of communication has failed’ (von Schon, Forum, October 1987:23). Therefore, a teacher’s objective should be to make sure that his students are always understood whenever they speak. In order to achieve that, they need good pronunciation, which would not put an ‘unnecessary barrier between them and their listeners’ (Brazil, 1994:2).
Teachers often do not think it necessary to stress the importance of pronunciation in language courses for adults since this age group is not regarded to be capable of achieving success on that field. Also, as adults are motivated in most cases instrumentally – that is, they learn a foreign language in order to get promoted or get a better job, the main stress is placed on such linguistic aspects as grammar or vocabulary. It may also be that ‘attention has been given to what are often referred to as communicative skills’(ibid.:2), where little, if any time has been devoted to the details of pronunciation.
For years pronunciation had been treated as an ‘optional luxury [that] should be left to advanced students’(Hubbard, 1991:207). Fortunately, recently there has been a turn in language teaching and pronunciation has been integrated in most language courses, accordingly to the principle of giving students communicative efficiency.
The aim of the thesis is to emphasize an important role of pronunciation in teaching adults a foreign language.
This project is divided into four chapters.
The first chapter characterizes adults as a learning group and deals with Krashen and Lenneberg’s theories of adult learning.
The next chapter presents the general notion of pronunciation. It also identifies the role of intelligibility in a teaching pronunciation, deals with the problem of choosing the type of pronunciation that is to be taught and discusses interference.
The third chapter is devoted to different aspects of pronunciation.
The last chapter shows some of the techniques used in a classroom to teach English pronunciation to adults.
Finally, there is an experiment, an aim of which is to check whether it is possible to teach pronunciation to adults in a normal classroom environment
