EFL Teachers’ Subjective Theories about Pronunciation Training (Supported by Internet - PowerPoint Presentation

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EFL Teachers’ Subjective Theories about Pronunciation Training (Supported by Internet Sources)

Mgr. Juraj

Datko

Supported by

: KEGA 055UKF-4/2016

UKF

: UGA V/3/2016

Research aim and questions

T

he aim of the presented study is:

(1) to explore EFL teachers’ subjective theories (views, attitudes, perceptions, practices, or suggestions) related

to (Internet- supported) pronunciation

training

.

We formulated two research questions, namely:

(RQ1) What are the interviewed EFL teachers’ subjective theories of pronunciation training?

(RQ2) What are the interviewed EFL teachers’ subjective theories of Internet-supported pronunciation training?

Research methodology

Data collection:

Semi-

structured interviews were used to reconstruct EFL teachers’ subjective theories.The interviews were audio

-recorded, while the researcher also took notes.

Data analysis:

Qualitative content analysis

was used to process the transcribed interview data.

The coding framework is based on

seven analytic categories

and

a set of

twenty

-

eight codes

.

Research sample

11 high school EFL teachers

(5 teachers from Dolný Kubín and 6

teachers from Nitra)

various lengths of pedagogical practice

(5 - 38 years of teaching experience)

Research analysis and results

Category I:

Teachers’ attitudes towards the importance of pronunciation

training in EFL classes

Code

No. of teachers

Example

I.) Pronunciation training is important in EFL classes.

4

“

Pronunciation

teaching is very important and unavoidable in EFL classrooms

.

Teachers should not expect their students to acquire correct pronunciation via exposure to English at home

”.

II.) Pronunciation training is important in EFL classes, but it is even more important for younger learners starting to learn English.

3

“Pronunciation training is an important element of foreign language teaching

and learning, but I would say, that it is even more important for younger learners in the lower levels”.

III.) Pronunciation training is important in EFL classes, but students can also benefit from exposure to English outside the classroom.

3

“Pronunciation practice is important to

a certain degree in our EFL classrooms, but I have some students, “no big intellectuals”, whose pronunciation has improved through listening to authentic speech

in movies

and on the Internet”.

IV.) Pronunciation training is not important

in EFL classes.

1

“It is not important to focus on pronunciation training during English lessons. Learners train their pronunciation implicitly at home”.

Category II:

The goal of pronunciation training as set by EFL teachers

Code

No. of teachers

Example

I.) Mutually intelligible pronunciation

6

“

Instead of striving after “perfect” pronunciation,

the goal of English pronunciation teaching should be easily understandable pronunciation causing no misunderstandings”.

II.) Native-like pronunciation

5

“

The only goal for students of English as a foreign language should be to pronounce as native speakers”.

Category

III: Topics to focus on in

English pronunciation training

Code

No. of teachers

Example

I.) Intonation

9

“

Intonation seems to be the most important topic of pronunciation teaching”.

II.) Stress

8

“

I think that

suprasegmentals, namely stress, should be highlighted

”.

III.) Variations

of English pronunciation

7

“

Students should be exposed to different accents of English, but they should not be taught to imitate them”.

IV.) Correct

articulation of individual sounds

6

“It is important to teach

them how to produce sounds correctly

”.

V.) Correct pronunciation

on the word level

5

“Words

must be pronounced correctly, otherwise there will be misunderstandings

”.

VI.) Strong and weak forms

2

“

/

di

:/ and /

də

/ are one of the first things I focus on

in pronunciation teaching”.

Category IV:

Teachers’ methods of pronunciation training

Code

No. of teachers

Examples

I.) Drilling

8

“Pronunciation training is a drill

”.

II.) Ear training

7

“

Our students need to be aware of the differences between accents

of English, since they often attend exchange programmes or find employment in a multi-cultural environment in foreign countries, where the ability to percept and understand the sound properties

of a wider range of both native and non-native English accents is

a must

”.

III.)

Reading aloud

5

The participants mentioned

the key word

“

reading aloud

”.

IV.) Correction

5

“

I try to correct students’ pronunciation while reading aloud

and during oral presentation in general

”.

Category

V:

Use of Internet resources in pronunciation training

CodeNo. of teachers

Examples

I.) I

use only textbook-related resources in pronunciation training.

7

“

Recent textbooks are so well- equipped that it would be an enormous waste of time to search the Internet for suitable samples of authentic speech and prepare some other web-based activities

”.

II.) I use both textbook-related and Internet-based

resources in pronunciation training.

4

“Besides textbook,

I use songs, movie scenes, and documentaries found on the Internet

”.

Category

VI: Teachers’ attitudes towards an Internet-based set of activities aimed at pronunciation training

Code

No. of teachers

Examples

I.) I would appreciate and use an Internet-based set of activities aimed at pronunciation training.

7

“

It would be definitely a great help for teachers, particularly for those who teach beginners, as bad pronunciation habits acquired in the initial phases of foreign language learning are then difficult to root out in the later stages

”.

II.) I would not appreciate and use an Internet-based set of activities aimed at pronunciation training.

3

“Personally, I would not use it, but for my younger and technically more advanced colleagues, it would surely be a frequently used resource”.

III.) I cannot judge.

1

“

I cannot decide whether I would or would not use such activities during my lessons

”.

Category

VII: Teachers’ suggestions about materials that should be included in a collection of websites suitable for pronunciation training

Code

No. of teachers

Examples

I.) No suggestions

5

These teachers were not able to give us any advice about

such materials.

II.) Videos

4

“

Subtitled online

videos might present a motivating way how to deal with pronunciation

”.

III.)

Audio samples

2

“

I would search the

Internet f

or authentic audio material such as dialogues or reports

”.

IV.) Tongue twisters

2

“There are lots of tongue twisters on the BBC website

”.

V.) Nursery rhymes

1

“

Nursery rhymes, songs, and jazz chants would come in handy for younger pupils”.

VI.) Songs

1

VII.) Jazz

chants

1

Research conclusion

Ten interviewees

agree

that pronunciation training is important in EFL classrooms. On the other hand, the remaining one respondent relies on students’ activities beyond the confines of the EFL classroom.

A slight majority (namely six) of our research subjects

(N=11

)

prefers

the more realistic goal of mutually intelligible pronunciation.

The

other five teachers

attempt to achieve native-likeness.

W

e can

deduce that a larger group of

our research participants

appears to be interested preferably

in

prosodic features, i.e. in the topics

that are

vital for pronunciation training in communicative approaches to foreign language

teaching.

O

n

the other hand, the

referred teaching

methods

suggest that

there still does

not exist a general consensus about how to address

pronunciation communicatively, since our

interview respondents mentioned

rather

traditional methods of instruction, namely

drilling and reading aloud. In

case of ear training, four of the seven research participants who claimed to employ this method for the purposes of pronunciation teaching use it in relation to sound discrimination and not for perception of

prosody.

As for correction of mispronunciation, the recommended learner-led approach tends to be largely ignored among the five research subjects who mentioned this technique of pronunciation training.

It seems that the traditional printed textbooks are dominant over electronic web sources for all of our interviewees. Furthermore, course books represent the only resource for pronunciation work for seven of our teacher interviewees

who also admitted to use only didactic materials for this kind of training.

The other four teachers claim to use textbook-related and also web-based materials, namely the online pronunciation sections of BBC and British Council, unspecified authentic audio and video samples, and an online-based school library.

In terms of teachers’ attitudes towards web-based pronunciation activities, a group of seven teacher respondents would appreciate and use such collection of activities in their teaching practice, while a group of three interviewees would not. The remaining one teacher could not judge.

Five of the teacher respondents gave us no advice on what materials to include in

such

an online-based set of activities

. Due to missing data, we can only deduce that their reluctance is perhaps connected with an insufficient theoretical knowledge base for pronunciation teaching. However, the other six

interviewees recommend

us to search the Internet for

videos,

audio-samples (e.g. dialogues, reports, etc),

tongue twisters,

nursery rhymes, songs,

and jazz chants.