The English Pronunciation Teaching in Europe Survey: Selected Results

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the main findings from a European-wide on-line survey of English pronunciation teaching practices. Both quantitative and qualitative data from seven countries (Finland, France, Germany, Macedonia, Poland, Spain and Switzerland) are presented, focusing on teachers' comments about:• their own pronunciation, • their training, • their learners' goals, skills, motivation and aspirations, • their preferences for certain varieties (and their perception of their students' preferences). The results of EPTiES reveal interesting phenomena across Europe, despite shortcomings in terms of construction and distribution. For example, most respondents are non-native speakers of English and the majority of them rate their own mastery of English pronunciation favourably. However, most feel they had little or no training in how to teach pronunciation, which begs the question of how teachers are coping with this key 1 Henderson and Frost are listed first because they did the final editing. Thereafter, authors are listed in alphabetical order of the country whose data they gathered and analysed. The order of the other authors thus reflects neither hierarchy nor significance of individual contributions, as this is a truly collaborative project and article.

English pronunciation teaching at different educational levels: Insights into teachers’ perceptions and actions

“…Many scholars have been interested in teachers' beliefs about pronunciation teaching at state schools in Poland (Czajka 2014;Szpyra-Kozłowska, Frankiewicz & Gonet 2002;Wrembel 2002) and other countries (Henderson et al 2012;Sifakis & Sougari 2005). The studies into teachers' beliefs, often referred to as teacher cognitions (cf.…”

“…Mostly, the researchers either surveyed (e.g. Henderson et al 2012) or interviewed EFL teachers (e.g. Czajka 2014) in order to tap into what teachers believe and actually do with respect to pronunciation.…”

“…On the other hand, EFL teachers consider pronunciation to be relatively important, among others, because of its value in intelligible communication (cf. Wrembel 2002;Henderson et al 2012).…”

“…Czajka 2014;Szpyra-Kozłowska, Frankiewicz & Gonet 2002;Wrembel 2002) and other countries (e.g. Baker 2011;Henderson et al 2012;Sifakis & Sougari 2005;Thomson 2013). However, although the researchers have investigated the beliefs of EFL teachers who teach pronunciation, they have frequently disregarded clarifications concerning the educational stages, such as primary, lower, and higher secondary levels at which the teachers taught.…”

The Role of Teaching – Learning English Pronunciation; the case of Education Colleges in Coimbatore

“…Henderson et al (2012) point out that the teachers who have phonological knowledge are unable to apply the knowledge acquired in classrooms. The 47% of the trainees could not differentiate sounds of the minimal pairs in /p/ and /b/.…”