Approaches to Pronunciation Instruction in Communicative Language Teaching Classrooms

Abstract

One of the main factors that affects pronunciation instruction in the classroom is the educators’ teaching approach. Various elements like the L1 (first language) and cultural backgrounds influence teaching pronunciation, making English teachers deploy different pedagogical approaches for the learning process to occur. This article aims to provide insights into the pedagogical approaches used by English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) teachers in their communicative language teaching (CLT) classrooms. It will also explore the influencing variables on these approaches. To this end, five English teachers (two EFL and three ESL teachers) provided the needed data through a questionnaire and a semistructured interview for this qualitative study. The results showed that the participants used two teaching approaches for delivering pronunciation lessons, and two types of variables (i.e., student-related and teacher-related variables) influenced their choice of approach in the pronunciation classroom. Although this study is not intended to be generalized, it provides language teachers with a view of pedagogical approaches used by some EFL and ESL teachers for teaching pronunciation.