I agree absolutely, Allan. Awareness of the target language and interference from the native language is key in good production. Awareness comes with explicit teaching. Competent learners come from exploiting both internal awareness criteria and explicit teaching into personal learning strategies.
Susan Rowley
>From: "French, Allan" <AFRENCH@SCCD.CTC.EDU>
>Reply-To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
>To: Multiple recipients of list <NIFL-ESL@LITERACY.NIFL.GOV>
>Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8723] RE: Explicit early teaching of pronunciation?
>Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 18:33:50 -0500 (EST)
>
>Listening carefully to a language is an essential but far from a sufficient tool for good pronunciation. My own experience in learning Portuguese in Brazil (where, in the beginning, I couldn't fathom why Brazilians didn't understand me when I thought that I was pronouncing the words correctly), tells me you don't hear yourself the way others hear you. If this were not the case, there would be no need to have students listen to themselves on cassette. Teaching speakers of Vietnamese has only confirmed this to me. Often I note how they drop the final "s" sound, and they respond that they thought that they had produced it. I am not a pronunciation expert, but I firmly believe that good pronunciation doesn't come automatically with time and experience. Helping students become aware of their pronunciation problems not only starts them on the road to improvement, but also gets them to start listening to Americans more carefully. Again, my own experience with Portuguese: !
>I often believe that I understand something said or sung and try to imitate it, but when I am made aware of my own faulty pronunciation and go back to the phrases previously listened to, I hear them differently, and more clearly. Awareness, listening and practice go hand in hand, I believe, with pronunciation, along with A LOT OF patience and persistence.
>
>Allan French
>ESL Instructor
>South Seattle Community College
>afrench@sccd.ctc.edu
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Russell [mailto:richtiger@cableone.net]
>Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 3:00 PM
>To: Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8722] Explicit early teaching of pronunciation?
>
>
>Well, I'm too quick to hit the delete button sometimes, so I've lost the
>post from the gentleman who argued for early, emphatic, explicit teaching of
>pronunciation. This is a discussion I've been in before and no doubt I
>ought to make a trip to the library to see what the current research is on
>pronunciation and the teaching thereof. Twenty years ago, I believe, the
>research consensus was that a "silent period" of some sort was not only
>harmless as regards developing good pronunciation but in fact preferable.
>
>Of course, each student and each instructor should do what works best for
>him or her. So, for example, ALM (the audiolingual method) is very much out
>of vogue; but it worked very well for me when I started studying Spanish.
>For most students, ALM would not be the preferred entry into Spanish or
>English. I guess I was the exception to the rule.
>
>But to return to pronunciation. I'd just argue that for a few weeks, at
>least, teachers should work on comprehension as opposed to production.
>Having done that, I believe that explanations of pronunciation,
>pronunciation drills, and reading aloud will be easier and more effective.
>However, I'd be glad to have any scholars out there save me a trip to the
>library and bring me up to date with research citations that will either
>tend to support my view or rebut it.
>
>Richard Russell
>richtiger@cableone.net