This paper aims at investigating how upper secondary school teachers of English in Malmö, Sweden abide by the curriculum criteria of having their learners develop correctness in speech, as well as what support English teachers receive with regard to pronunciation teaching from official steering documents. Furthermore, this paper attempts to critically evaluate and discuss potential options for pronunciation models or standards in education which hold sway in contemporary research. Through qualitative interviews with four upper secondary school teachers of English, the findings of this study indicate a discrepancy between the participants’ views on how ‘correctness’ should be interpreted as well as their methods for teaching and assessing pronunciation. In addition, none of the participants explicitly expressed a subscription to any particular pronunciation model or standard, but rather that they focused on intelligibility over native speaker accent accuracy. Through personal communications with the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) and a university professor of English at a teacher education programme, tendencies are observable of attempts at shifting responsibility for interpreting, understanding, and applying the syllabi, ultimately leaving individual teachers to uphold the demand of an equitable education through subjective interpretations of pronunciation teaching. The implications of this study suggest that the field of pronunciation teaching in both Swedish and international context is still underdeveloped and in desperate need of further research. Whilst this study may have limited reach or impact on the field as such, it may serve as an indicator for the problem at large for teachers, researchers and educational agencies as well as promoting an awareness of issues in the equitability of pronunciation teaching. This paper may also serve as a basis for discussion in teacher teams or other educational opportunities for teachers on the development of coherent pronunciation constructs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-43377 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | sundin, anton, Wenell, Viktor |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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