Abstract
The present research discussed the significance of teaching English pronunciation to Iraqi EFL learners. It chronologically reviewed the drastic changes which pronunciation instruction has witnessed since the 1940s until the present. Most of these changes highly emphasized the necessity of pronunciation teachers training and education. In addition, it stressed that the learners must be encouraged to learn the target pronunciation so that they can progressively develop their communicative skills. The study also explained the prosodic structure of English and the main teaching and learning problems that pronunciation teachers as well as learners may encounter. More importantly, it presented a practical and flexible teaching model represented by a pyramid-shaped system including the most important prosodic features that ELLs (English language learners) need to concentrate on, viz., the prosody pyramid. Since the prosodic features are extensively used by NSs (native speakers), it is crucially important for ELLs to learn the rules that restrain using such features. Thus, it presented a prosody-based teaching/learning model that facilitates teaching and learning the prosodic patterns including various thought groups and feasibly helps learners implement them to form their own utterances. Strikingly, pronunciation instruction can be substantially consolidated by implementing more advanced technology tools which magnificently provide students with enriching aural-oral-visual resources. Finally, the study concludes with emphasizing the significance of pronunciation instruction to developing ELLs’ communicative skills and that it must not be marginalized. Instead, it should be considered as important as the other language aspects.
Keywords
Communicative skills.
Iraqi EFL learners
Keywords: Pronunciation instruction
Prosody pyramid
Abstract
The present research discussed the significance of teaching English pronunciation to Iraqi EFL learners. It chronologically reviewed the drastic changes which pronunciation instruction has witnessed since the 1940s until the present. Most of these changes highly emphasized the necessity of pronunciation teachers training and education. In addition, it stressed that the learners must be encouraged to learn the target pronunciation so that they can progressively develop their communicative skills. The study also explained the prosodic structure of English and the main teaching and learning problems that pronunciation teachers as well as learners may encounter. More importantly, it presented a practical and flexible teaching model represented by a pyramid-shaped system including the most important prosodic features that ELLs (English language learners) need to concentrate on, viz., the prosody pyramid. Since the prosodic features are extensively used by NSs (native speakers), it is crucially important for ELLs to learn the rules that restrain using such features. Thus, it presented a prosody-based teaching/learning model that facilitates teaching and learning the prosodic patterns including various thought groups and feasibly helps learners implement them to form their own utterances. Strikingly, pronunciation instruction can be substantially consolidated by implementing more advanced technology tools which magnificently provide students with enriching aural-oral-visual resources. Finally, the study concludes with emphasizing the significance of pronunciation instruction to developing ELLs’ communicative skills and that it must not be marginalized. Instead, it should be considered as important as the other language aspects.
Keywords
الكلمات المفتاحية: تدريس النطق، هرم العَروض، متعلمو الإنجليزية العراقيون، المهارات التواصلية.