Beliefs and practices of Brazilian EFL teachers regarding pronunciation

Abstract

Interest in pronunciation learning and teaching has increased significantly in the past few years. Studies and resources in the area have proliferated, but it is important to know whether they have influenced teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL). The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs and practices of Brazilian EFL teachers. Convenience and snowball sampling were employed to recruit 60 participants, who completed an online survey on pronunciation teaching and learning. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse trends, while qualitative responses were coded for common topics. The findings suggest that the instructors had generally informed views about pronunciation and positive attitudes toward its teaching. Their teaching practices tended to be traditional: the predominant approach was to deal with word-level features, especially problematic sounds, through repetition as the need arose. Although most of the respondents claimed to be comfortable teaching pronunciation, they reported a wish for more pronunciation training, as have other instructors in prior studies (e.g. Burgess & Spencer, 2000; Foote, Holtby, & Derwing, 2011).

The pronunciation teaching practices of university‐level graduate teaching assistants of French and Spanish introductory language courses

“…A clear finding across both data sources was that very little instructional time was allocated to pronunciation teaching. These results are in line with findings from previous surveys in EFL/ESL and foreign language contexts (e.g., Buss, ; Foote et al, ; Huensch, ) and classroom observations in ESL contexts (Foote et al, ).…”

“…Much of the research on the amount and type of pronunciation instruction has come from surveys of instructors. Studies have shown that a majority of respondents who taught ESL (Foote et al, ); EFL (Buss, ); and French, German, or Spanish introductory language courses in the United States (Huensch, ) reported that they thought such instruction was important and that they addressed pronunciation in their lessons, although they devoted little instructional time to doing so. For example, Foote et al (2011, p. 11) calculated the average amount of class time spent on pronunciation to be 6%.…”

“…For example, Foote et al (2011, p. 11) calculated the average amount of class time spent on pronunciation to be 6%. Such self‐reported data must be interpreted with caution, however, because what constitutes “teaching pronunciation” can be defined in a variety of ways, as observed by Buss (), who found that some instructors’ responses implied that any speaking task could be considered to focus on pronunciation. In another study, Foote et al () measured the amount of pronunciation‐focused language‐related episodes of three experienced ESL instructors via a corpus derived from 40 hours of sixth‐grade intensive ESL classes in Canada.…”

“…However, despite the many potential advantages of focusing on pronunciation, reports from surveys of instructors have demonstrated that only a small proportion of instructional time is devoted to developing it (Buss, ; Foote, Holtby, & Derwing, ; Huensch, ) and that instructors have noted a lack of and desire for training in ways to teach it (Huensch, ; Murphy, ). While a body of survey research has been growing that investigates instructors’ beliefs and attitudes regarding the teaching of pronunciation in both English as a foreign language (EFL)/ESL (e.g., Breitkreutz, Derwing, & Rossiter, ; Buss, ; Foote et al, ) and in languages other than English (e.g., Huensch, ; Nagle, Sachs, & Zárate‐Sández, ), much less is known about instructors’ actual classroom practices. Among what is a very small number of such studies, few have included classroom observations (e.g., Baker, ; Foote, Trofimovich, Collins, & Urzúa, ) and those that did exclusively examined the practices of experienced ESL instructors.…”

Lingua Franca Core: A Plausible Option?

“…Finally, other issues such as learners' goals, and their L1 backgrounds, should also be considered when choosing an L2 English pronunciation model. The teaching and learning of English language pronunciation should be guided and aided by useful tools such as phonetic transcription, for the more advanced learners, and other resources which are now more accessible such as computer software, mobile apps, and internet tools (Buss, 2016).…”