Pronunciation Standards in the Context of Modern Requirements for Students’ Competency Level

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of frequent violations of pronunciation norms at the present stage of the language system development. Reasons for accentological errors and approaches to correcting them are considered. The methods of participant observation and text analysis were used to identify cases of errors and possible causes of violations of codified rules. Participant observation allowed the authors to identify some repeated mistakes made by schoolchildren in reproducing codified accentological norms. The analysis of modern Russian language textbooks from the standpoint of the requirements for preparing for the final assessment (USE) showed that the textbooks for different educational levels fail to cover cases, where students tend to make accentuation mistakes. In addition, the pronouncing dictionaries of the analysed textbooks often contain language units that have been fully mastered by the language and the society thus not implying any pronunciation variants. The identification of problem areas in teaching accentological norms, as well as the development of methodological techniques for organizing work on their adoption, can contribute to a more effective formation of the pronunciation culture of students.