Pronunciation teaching has shifted dramatically over the past century, from demanding native-like accuracy through behaviourist drill, to near-total neglect during the communicative era, to the current consensus that intelligible pronunciation is both teachable and essential. The key question is no longer whether to teach pronunciation but what to prioritise and how.
| Era | Approach | Goal | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audiolingual (1950s-60s) | Phonemic accuracy | Native-like pronunciation | Listen-and-repeat, minimal pairs, language lab drills |
| Communicative (1970s-80s) | Neglect | Not explicitly addressed | Pronunciation left to "emerge" through communicative practice |
| Post-communicative (1990s+) | Intelligibility-focused | Comfortable intelligibility | Segmental + suprasegmental work, Connected Speech training |
| ELF/LFC (2000s+) | Core features only | Mutual intelligibility among NNS-NNS | Focus on Lingua Franca Core features; tolerant of non-core variation |
The oldest and simplest approach. Teacher models, learners repeat. Still useful for introducing new sounds and building muscle memory, but insufficient alone: learners may repeat accurately in drills but not transfer to spontaneous speech.
Contrasting words that differ by one Phoneme (e.g., ship/sheep, bat/bet). Develops phonemic discrimination and production. Effective for specific segmental problems but does not address suprasegmental features or connected speech.
Teaching the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) gives learners a tool for independent learning: they can decode dictionary pronunciations and identify sounds precisely. Adrian Underhill's phonemic chart is widely used in ELT. Not all learners respond well to this abstract system, but for those who do, it is powerful.
Focuses on how pronunciation changes in natural, fluent speech: Connected Speech features including linking, elision, assimilation, weak forms, and contractions. Essential for both production (sounding natural) and reception (understanding fast speech). This is arguably the most impactful area for listening comprehension.
Prioritises Suprasegmentals, including word stress, sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation, over individual sounds. Research suggests that suprasegmental features contribute more to intelligibility than segmental accuracy. A learner who stresses the wrong syllable (comFORtable instead of COMfortable) may be harder to understand than one who mispronounces a single vowel.
Key areas:
Pronunciation is taught in the context of extended speech: how intonation signals new vs given information, how pausing creates emphasis, and how stress patterns organise discourse. This approach treats pronunciation as part of communication, not an isolated drill.
Jennifer Jenkins (2000) proposed the LFC for English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) contexts, where the primary communication is between non-native speakers. The LFC identifies features that most affect mutual intelligibility:
Core (teach these):
Non-core (tolerate variation):
The LFC is controversial. Critics argue it sets lower standards for NNS; proponents argue it is evidence-based and realistic. In practice, most teachers adopt a pragmatic middle ground: teach what matters most for the learner's context.
Pronunciation is most effective when integrated into other skills work rather than isolated in separate "pronunciation lessons":
The consensus in current pronunciation pedagogy: