Teacher cognition of pronunciation teaching amongst English language teachers in Uruguay

Abstract

This article reports on the concerns and issues which 28 experienced and well-qualified teachers expressed during individual semi-structured interviews with the researcher. It describes and discusses the participants’ views, pulling together themes representative of a wide range of perspectives on pronunciation teaching. Themes include: teacher anxiety about pronunciation and pronunciation teaching; external factors affecting pronunciation teaching such as curriculum and exam pressures, textbooks, and training received; approaches to teaching and error correction; activities and techniques; and issues related to literacy bias, listen-and-repeat, use of phonemic symbols and pronunciation goals and models. These findings, taken in conjunction with studies of teacher cognition in other contexts, serve to inform all those with an interest in English language teaching, whether they be researchers, teachers or teacher educators, curriculum designers or textbook writers.

Teacher Cognition of Pronunciation Teaching: Teachers' Concerns and Issues

“…These gaps led to a lack of confidence in teaching pronunciation. In particular, stress and intonation were commonly mentioned as areas that were neglected as a result of this, an observation that has been widely reported (Baker, ; Couper, ; Foote et al., ; Fraser, ; MacDonald, ).…”

“…Some felt the need to know more about the sound systems of other languages so that they could help learners from various L1 backgrounds. Such gaps in knowledge have been reported from several different contexts (Burns, ; Couper, ; Foote et al., ; Henderson et al., ; Murphy, ). These gaps led to a lack of confidence in teaching pronunciation.…”

“…One theme was a reluctance to teach intonation amongst those who spoke an inner circle variety of English other than the local variety. One might expect nonnative English speakers to be reluctant to provide their own nonnative model (Couper, ; Murphy, ), so it is interesting to see that the same applies to speakers of different native varieties. Participants showed awareness of learners’ needs, and culture and identity, when considering a target model and setting clear achievable goals.…”

“…Although one would expect this to be a problem in English as a second language (ESL) contexts, some participants noted that individual differences are greater than L1 differences, so the mixed class is not really any more difficult than a single‐L1 group with different skills and abilities. In both cases, the teacher has to differentiate according to learners' needs, a challenge also faced in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts where there is typically a shared L1 (Couper, ). Similar concerns in dealing with individual differences, whether related to L1, proficiency, or other factors, have also been reported by Baker () and Foote et al.…”

“…A recent research report informed by semistructured interviews with English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Uruguay revealed a number of concerns and issues facing teachers (Couper, ). In addition to reporting findings similar to those above, such as lack of confidence and training in how to teach pronunciation, there was anxiety about using their own nonnative English speaker pronunciation as a model.…”