Pronunciation: The Big Picture

Abstract

Numerous factors come into play when teaching pronunciation to second language (L2) learners of English. First, the learners may share the same first language (L1) or come from multiple L1 backgrounds. The process is further complicated by the various pronunciation issues needing to be covered, namely the segmental (vowel and consonant) and suprasegmental (stress, rhythm, and intonation) features of English. Finally, the task is colored by whether learners come from a language family more closely related to English (i.e., Indo-European languages) or from unrelated language families (i.e., non-Indo-European).
This article focuses on the big picture of pronunciation teaching, examining those factors impacting students’ acquisition of English pronunciation. To illustrate, two target populations—students from an Indo-European L1 background (German) and students from a non-Indo-European background (Thai)—are examined to showcase how their differing language backgrounds can impact L2 pronunciation acquisition. The analysis also highlights issues that arise depending on whether the learners’ L1 is tonal or intonational and how this may facilitate or impede learners’ acquisition of English intonation and sentence stress. Further, it examines how learners’ L1 syllable structure may determine command of word stress in English. Finally, it examines the predictive power of the vowel and consonant inventories of these two languages compared to those of English and how L1 consonant clustering configurations may differ from those of the target language. The article concludes with suggested teaching strategies addressing both segmental and suprasegmental issues that teachers may encounter when teaching English pronunciation to their L2 learners.