As my colleagues have already mentioned, the further we go the tougher it gets. However, although this week's task occupied most of my time, I had a feeling that I fulfilled my requirements with more vigour and zeal than before.
Besides Delicious, we were given a number of readings on teaching listening, speaking and pronunciation along with several websites to explore. The most interesting moment for me was to compare how approaches to teaching pronunciation have changed over the years. In Teaching Listening Comprehension P. Ur (1984) argues that teachers should sensitize students to the existence of notions such as rhythm, stress and intonation, but not go further than that. In her opinion, teaching these patterns is completely unpredictable as they are idiosyncratic and thus too varied to have true value in teaching pronunciation.
On the other hand, M.G. Busà in her New Perspectives In Teaching Pronunciation, claims that a more balanced approach to teaching pronunciation has been adopted over the recent years, with a stronger emphasis on prosody. Busà argues that this significant shift occured because of technology and the development of a variety of speech recognition systems.
Teachers nowadays have access to an array of web-based resources that they can use with their students to practise pronunciation. There is no need, however, to completely eliminate a foreign accent, but the fact that a particular accent can be acquired is unquestionable, as seen in this video, where actress Amy Walker repeats one and the same sentence in 21 different accents.
You might also be intersted in The Speech Accent Archive, a project run by the faculty of the George Mason University.
Wow, Arjana. It's good to know how much me and my groupmates have enjoyed taking this online course. So many new ways of looking at what we do in class. Thank you for the Sppech Accent Archive, I didn't know it.
ReplyDeleteHello Arjana,
ReplyDeleteAs usual you are giving a very thoughtful insight into the discussed problem. I completely agree with you that generally students should be taught a particular accent.Undoubtedly, we cannot eliminate the native accent altogether, but we should try to teach them correct patterns of pronunciation and intonation.
When I studied English at university, we were taught classical British,so called 'Queen's English' pronunciation patterns. Later, when I went to America,and this was my first
visit ever to an English-speaking country,everybody said that I sounded British; nobody said I had a particular kind of accent that is characteristic of this or that nation.
Thank you for the video!
Best
Bella
Dear Marjana,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the video you shared with us. I found it as funny and intersting as the lady Gaga one you attached to one of your posts before. Reading your posts has always been an intellectual pleasure for me. There's a considerable amount of truth as to the changes pronunciation teaching approaches have witnessed.In fact, ELT approaches are constantly fluctuating between recycling old methods and producing completely innovative ones.This boiling nature of ELT is absolutely beneficial for both learners and teachers. However, I humbly have a personal theory of language learning. I believe that speaking a language with an accent shouldn't be a thing to be ashamed of. It's rather a personal touch added to the target language to be proud of. What must be prioritized in any communication act is the MESSAGE. If one happens to get his message across and be understood, That's it. Accents and harmless pronunciations are there just for aesthetic/acoustic purposes and to highlight the enriching differences we certainly appreciate in our contacts with people from different cultures.
Regards
Arbi
Dear friends,
ReplyDeletethank you for your kind words.
I couldn't agree more with you regarding accents. What matters is intelligible communication, and as long as the speaker's accent doesn't interfere with the message, i.e. as long as he/she is understood, it shouldn't be regarded as a negative feature.
But what about English teachers? Should we speak with no foreign accent at all?
All the best
Arjana