As part of an extensive survey of the relevant literature on the place and practice of pronunciation teaching, over 50 ‘ELT’ and ‘Pronunciation’ handbooks were reviewed. The main ideas and arguments of all handbook writers were drawn together in the form of 11 themes which provided the basis for the research questions and the research instrument of the study reported in this thesis. The study provided a comprehensive overview of current attitudes and practice in terms of pronunciation status and role, pronunciation models and targets and pronunciation teaching techniques in one major European city,Thessaloniki, Greece. Questionnaires were completed by 327 upper intermediate and advanced EFL learners and 47 EFL teachers. Additionally, interviews were conducted with 12 EFL teachers. The study explored the extent to which ELT writers’ views agreed with EFL teachers’ views. In many cases discrepancies emerged between what the experts advised and the teachers’ perceived priorities and reported practises; possible explanations and appropriate recommendations are provided as part of this thesis. A number of factors are identified as having a different effect on the perceived status of pronunciation; learners’ age, level of English, language learning purpose, language context and L1. This thesis is an attempt to seek to establish a rightful place for pronunciation in TEFL. In terms of pronunciation models, there was an overwhelming preference for RP and GA by the teachers and learners of this study. Nevertheless, the teachers would be largely content with accented international intelligibility whereas many learners would aspire to native-like pronunciation (NLP). It is recommended that teachers should help those learners who wish to achieve NLP to do so and that an updated version of RP or GA is the most appropriate pronunciation model for the teachers to adopt and the learners to follow in the context of TEFL in Greece.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:567235 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Kanellou, Vasiliki |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://orca.cf.ac.uk/28787/ |
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