One of the most significant changes in language classrooms over recent decades has been the introduction of ICTs. Despite a broad range of previous research in the field, little work has been done to date on assessing the benefits of teaching pronunciation through ICTs, something surprising in view of the large number of existing programs and other materials specifically designed to improve learners' pronunciation. This paper is intended to contribute to the field in that it will provide an overview of the materials currently available for teaching pronunciation through the use of ICTs, as well as an empirical preliminary study on ESP students' first contact with using ICTs for learning pronunciation. Results indicate that these students enjoyed using these technological tools and would like to use them again to practise their pronunciation.

This paper focuses on non-native accents in ESP classrooms. In particular it looks at native and non-native speakers of English accents used in the audio material accompanying six ESP textbooks. In a second study, a group of undergraduate ESP students of Law and Tourism were asked to assess some of the non-native speakers accents found in these materials, focussing on aspects such as fluency, pronunciation, intelligibility and foreign accent. More specifically, they were asked to rate the following non-native accents of speakers in English: French, German, Polish, Chinese and Spanish. Results from the first part of the study show that native speaker models continue to be present in ESP textbooks to a far higher degree than non-native ones. In the second part, the non-native accents that students rated most positively were those of German and Polish speakers, and those seen in the most negative terms were French and Spanish. In general, the Law students tended to value native accents more than non-native ones, whereas students of Tourism broadly accept both native and non-native accents.

Enseñanza y Aprendizaje de Lenguas Extranjeras en Educación Secundaria y Obligatoria, edited by Dolors Masats and Luci Nussbaum, contains a lot of useful and innovative information regarding the teaching and learning of foreign languages in today’s classrooms.

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Previous research has tended to focus on the main diffi culties that Spanish learners of English have with pronunciation due to total and partial differences between the phonological systems of the L1 and L2. The present study aims to contribute to this fi eld, providing empirical data on the specifi c problems with the pronunciation of vowels of a group of advanced learners. Findings indicate that several English vowels, especially the north, palm, schwa and goat vowels, continue to pose many diffi culties at higher levels of profi ciency; hence the teaching of these sounds should be emphasised at earlier stages. Keywords: EFL, pronunciation, vowels, advanced Spanish learners, teaching. Resumen: Investigaciones previas se han concentrado en las principales difi cultades que los estudiantes españoles de inglés tienen con la pronunciación debido a las diferencias totales y parciales entre los sistemas fonéticos de la primera y segunda lengua. Este estudio pretende hacer una aportación en este campo al ofrecer datos empíricos sobre las difi cultades específi cas de estudiantes avanzados con las vocales. Los resultados indican que algunas vocales, especialmente las vocales north, palm, schwa y goat, continúan siendo un problema para los alumnos avanzados y, por lo tanto, se debería de enfatizar la enseñanza de dichos sonidos desde niveles inferiores.