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Awakening Sleeping Beauty: Pronunciation instruction beyond ‘listen and repeat’
Newsletter article

Awakening Sleeping Beauty: Pronunciation instruction beyond ‘listen and repeat’

Arizio M Sweeting
Speak Out, Vol.52, pp.21-29
2015
url
http://www.iatefl.org/View
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Abstract

Curriculum and Pedagogy Language Studies teaching pronunciation alternative techniques first language phonology second language pronunciation
As a teacher educator, I had used 'listen and repeat' to teach pronunciation with limited success until the day I began to reflect on whether there were other alternatives. In my search for these alternatives, I have discovered new ways of teaching pronunciation, somewhat like Sleeping Beauty waiting to be awakened from slumber. In this article, therefore, I will discuss the reasons why I believe 'listen and repeat' continues to hold pronunciation back, and describe some alternative techniques that teachers and teacher educators could consider to move away from such a technique. I will also share an informal experiment I have conducted in Brazilian Portuguese as an awareness-raising exercise with English native speaker teachers in Australia. The experiment shows the importance of exploring the learners' first language (L1) phonology to teach second language (L2) pronunciation. The article will then conclude with individual teachers' reactions to this experiment.

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