I like the point you raise, Alex, about there being two "registers" of pronunciation (see bold bit below). I teach pronunciation to (amongst others) air traffic controllers, both civilian and military. European regulations denote that by 2008 all countries must guarantee that their operating staff have a "Level 4" which is an "operational" use of English. One of the sub-skills to be tested in this important qualifying examination is pronunciation and it is the one that my French population finds the hardest. We work hard on professional cross-intelligibility in aeronautical contexts. In a group discussion in class, there is a greater amount of accented words that I will let pass, as I consider the students accent to be part of their identity and am accustomed to hearing a French accent. I am expecting that they will use this more general English in a context where people take into account their French identity. Here their identity is important.
However, I am much more particular when it comes to their professional English as I have to consider that my students are entering a working arena where English is going to used as an international language by many differing NNS and where the stakes are high - failure to communicate effectively can ultimately mean jeopardising people's lives. So am I effectively teaching two different registers, that where personality is important and that where professionalism is important?
Questions that I battle with, academically speaking, are as follows: How realistic is it for me to accustom my students to the plethora of accents they will hear, if internationally all accents are given equal worth (though politically I agree with this wholeheartedly)? How realistic is it for me to not only encourage my colleagues to actually work on pronunciation and its funny symbols but also to tell them that they have to consider a whole international pronunciation system different from their own as well? How do we implement an international approach keeping these two questions in mind? Teaching pronunciation, on the front line, teachers seem damned if they do, damned if they don't! Perhaps that is why so many teachers prefer not to approach pronunciation at all?
Oh dear! Its been a long day so apologies if I lack clarity ..... and positivity!
Anna
Anna Bernard
EFL Lecturer
Ecole Nationale de L'Aviation Civile
7, avenue Edouard Belin
BP 4005
31055 Toulouse CEDEX
Tel: 00 33 5 62 17 41 15
| "pronsig_mod"
<pronsig_mod@...>
Envoyé par : iatefl_pronsig@... 16/11/2007 23:14
|
|
The results of this poll were interesting, and indicate a serious issue that we need to deal
with in pronunciation. Pronunciation teaching is often equated with accent reduction. Yet
people are able to communicate very effectively in English while keeping aspects of their
first language accent. Does that mean that we shouldn't teach pronunciation at all?
On one hand if "imposing" English pronunciation is immoral, then so is "imposing" English
vocabulary and grammar, so the statement is meaningless, but there are significant issues
in how, for example, pronunciation is graded in international examinations. I can state
proudly that I failed my training as a CPE examiner. I failed, because I wasn't hard enough
on a speaker who was easy to understand but had a strong accent. (ok, actually, I was
accepted as an examiner, but I was outside of the acceptable range). Jennifer Jenkins has
popularized the question of what norms and standards should be used for pronunciation.
My concern is that this question is only taken as relevant in academic circles. Teachers and
students seem quite happy with a target of a sort of BBC English and some kind of General
American accent. Is there any need to get political about this in the classroom?
Another anecdote - I gave pronunciation tutorials to an Italian student who I'd worked with
in summer classes for a few weeks. In one tutorial something clicked, and suddenly she
was speaking in a very BBC accent. Strangely it wasn't a moment of celebration - it was an
uncomfortable moment for both of us. She was suddenly someone different. It wasn't her
voice. In an odd Frankenstein sense, it was mine! Uurghh! In later sessions it seemed that
the voice she had learnt was a useful resource, but not one that she would adopt for
normal communciation.
I think this is a fascinating topic and I'd be really interested to hear people's views and
experiences.
Alex.
Offline 
Send Email