Pronunciation issue

[Anna-V]

Have heard a podcast from 'The TEFL Show' on pronunciation.
That was '6 Things You Should Know About Pronuncation'

Podcast Outline

And I've come across some interesting things:
- There was a research that showed that in groups of students/people consisting of participants from different countries people were able to understand each other despite the fact that they speak English quite bad. That proves that we can speak about certain 'Lingua Franca Core'. That means that communication can be successful even if spealers make mistakes. So we have to admit that some things about the language are quite unimportant for a speaker to be understood. The others are, otherwise, are crucial for your intelligibility.

1. Consonants
Btw it's true that teachers and textbooks pay more attention to vowels rather than consonants. But the latter are much more important for intelligibility.
2. The voiseless [Ө] and the voiced [ð]

(!) The main thing about teaching pronunciation - Teach your students pronunciate sounds the way they can be understood in the international community. So some ajustments can be reasonable.

3. Aspiration
4. Vowel quality - Length(!)

For Advansed students: A vowel gets longer before voiced consonants than before the voiceless: Cab vs. cat. - have no idea about that))

5. The individual stress isn't so crucial for intelliglbllity. Though this statement makes me (as an English teacher cry). But if we speak only about intelligibility.... let it be)

6. Foreign accent is OK. That I knew very well.
(!) As long as it doesn't influence your intelligibility.
In fact, there's no reason to hide it.

Btw you might notice that in all textbooks there are a lot of listenings with non-native English speakers. That is a significant observation.
There was also an interesting research that non-native speakers try harder to be understood than the native.

To know the rules of pronunciation, nevertheless, are necessary for receptive pronunciation skills.


www.buzzfeed.com/alanamohamed/can-you-correctly...


www.buzzfeed.com/shylawatson/do-you-know-the-or...