I have loved this and the previous post, thank you so much. As someone with an allergy to academic articles, this is exactly what I need :) I created a Pronunciation Training course based around problem sounds/ important phonological features based on my years of teaching, and it's encouraging to see a lot of what I did featured in this article - albeit with room for improvement on my part!
Coming to your point about why the authors don't cover teaching assimilation etc in pronunciation - I do teach this to students but not so much for their pronunciation It's for their listening skills. My mantra is if you can produce a sound, you can hear a sound, and I think that's important for learners to realise that teaching pronunciation and listening is completely connected. Improve one, and the other will follow.
Obviously it depends on the needs of the learner and who they use English with, but if they are living in an English speaking country or working with L1 speakers of British English for example, I like to raise their awareness of things like assimilation and showing them ways they can begin to bring it into their speaking (always emphasising that it's not for their communication but so they can better understand others).
I'm so glad you've been liking the posts and that you've been finding them useful! Yay!
The link between teaching pronunciation and listening is super interesting (and something I've just started learning about because of your comment and Jack's comment). It makes total sense! When I was learning French, learning connected speech reaaaaally helped my listening skills. I also love the idea of continually emphasizing that learning pronunciation can help with listening skills because pronunciation work can be emotional for students (like: Will I get made fun of for the way I sound? Why can't I hear this sound!?) I think emphasizing how it can help their English overall makes pronunciation work less daunting.
I agree that tailoring content (as much as possible) to the English that the student is surrounded by is really helpful, especially with things like connected speech which really differs depending on variety.
Thanks for another amazing article. Very interesting and will certainly affect the way I approach teaching pronunciation. It would definitely be worth checking out the work of Jennifer Jenkins and the Lingua Franca Core.
She carried out a study that looked at the impact of segmental and suprasegmental errors on intelligibility and came up with some key findings on what areas of pronunciation should be focussed on.
Thank you! I looked up the Lingua France Core, and I find it so interesting. I was curious about connected speech because I see so many pronunciation videos about it online. It makes sense that it's not needed for intelligibility, and I like how she even puts that weak forms can negatively impact intelligibility. It's super important for teachers to know that! Have you also found that so many pronunciation videos online focus on connected speech? I'm curious why...
Thanks again! I'm hoping to dive deeper into Jennifer Jenkins work. I've read a bit, but want to learn more! :)
Yeah it’s not just videos but coursebooks too. I suppose that despite some of these features not being necessary to produce intelligible speech, it might useful to be aware of them for comprehension. Not being able to understand fast speakers is always a big complaint for learners and weak forms and connected speech have surely got a part to play in that.
Either way, with the LFC and Funtional Load in hand we’ve got a pretty good idea of how to best serve your students. What aspects of pronunciation I addressed first was always a bit random so it’s nice to have a more reasoned approach!
Totally! The research I did find about connected speech was about how it’s helpful for listening comprehension. For production, I couldn’t find loads of information, but most researchers are like Jenkins and say it either isn’t necessary for intelligibility or can make it worse. Good to know! I’ve never taught connected speech, but now I have a better idea of how I’d use it.
I felt the same way about not knowing what to address first. I’m glad we’ve discovered LFC and Functional Load!
I have loved this and the previous post, thank you so much. As someone with an allergy to academic articles, this is exactly what I need :) I created a Pronunciation Training course based around problem sounds/ important phonological features based on my years of teaching, and it's encouraging to see a lot of what I did featured in this article - albeit with room for improvement on my part!
Coming to your point about why the authors don't cover teaching assimilation etc in pronunciation - I do teach this to students but not so much for their pronunciation It's for their listening skills. My mantra is if you can produce a sound, you can hear a sound, and I think that's important for learners to realise that teaching pronunciation and listening is completely connected. Improve one, and the other will follow.
Obviously it depends on the needs of the learner and who they use English with, but if they are living in an English speaking country or working with L1 speakers of British English for example, I like to raise their awareness of things like assimilation and showing them ways they can begin to bring it into their speaking (always emphasising that it's not for their communication but so they can better understand others).
Hi, Claire!
I'm so glad you've been liking the posts and that you've been finding them useful! Yay!
The link between teaching pronunciation and listening is super interesting (and something I've just started learning about because of your comment and Jack's comment). It makes total sense! When I was learning French, learning connected speech reaaaaally helped my listening skills. I also love the idea of continually emphasizing that learning pronunciation can help with listening skills because pronunciation work can be emotional for students (like: Will I get made fun of for the way I sound? Why can't I hear this sound!?) I think emphasizing how it can help their English overall makes pronunciation work less daunting.
I agree that tailoring content (as much as possible) to the English that the student is surrounded by is really helpful, especially with things like connected speech which really differs depending on variety.
Thanks for another amazing article. Very interesting and will certainly affect the way I approach teaching pronunciation. It would definitely be worth checking out the work of Jennifer Jenkins and the Lingua Franca Core.
She carried out a study that looked at the impact of segmental and suprasegmental errors on intelligibility and came up with some key findings on what areas of pronunciation should be focussed on.
Thank you! I looked up the Lingua France Core, and I find it so interesting. I was curious about connected speech because I see so many pronunciation videos about it online. It makes sense that it's not needed for intelligibility, and I like how she even puts that weak forms can negatively impact intelligibility. It's super important for teachers to know that! Have you also found that so many pronunciation videos online focus on connected speech? I'm curious why...
Thanks again! I'm hoping to dive deeper into Jennifer Jenkins work. I've read a bit, but want to learn more! :)
Yeah it’s not just videos but coursebooks too. I suppose that despite some of these features not being necessary to produce intelligible speech, it might useful to be aware of them for comprehension. Not being able to understand fast speakers is always a big complaint for learners and weak forms and connected speech have surely got a part to play in that.
Either way, with the LFC and Funtional Load in hand we’ve got a pretty good idea of how to best serve your students. What aspects of pronunciation I addressed first was always a bit random so it’s nice to have a more reasoned approach!
Totally! The research I did find about connected speech was about how it’s helpful for listening comprehension. For production, I couldn’t find loads of information, but most researchers are like Jenkins and say it either isn’t necessary for intelligibility or can make it worse. Good to know! I’ve never taught connected speech, but now I have a better idea of how I’d use it.
I felt the same way about not knowing what to address first. I’m glad we’ve discovered LFC and Functional Load!