交际英语教学模式下的大学英语语音教学研究_英文_赵欣

内蒙古工业大学学报（社会科学版）Journal of Inner Mongolia University of Technology第21卷第2期（Social Sciences ）Vol．21No．22012*收稿日期：2011－07－18基金项目：内蒙古工业大学教改项目（200806）作者简介：赵欣（1976－），女，内蒙古工业大学外国语学院副教授，英语语言文学硕士，主要研究方向为二语学习策略和研究方法。

Pronunciation Teaching Integrated into Communicative Language Teaching Framework in Tertiary Level StudentsZhao Xin ，Ji Jingtong ，Wang Siqin ，Su Guimei（College of Foreign Languages of Inner Mongolia University of Technology ，Inner MongoliaHohhot 010080）Abstract ：This article presents a survey of first －year English majors （n =76）at Inner MongoliaUniversity of Technology regarding their pronunciation beliefs and their perception of teachers ’practice．It touches on two sets of questions．First ，it refers to students ’viewpoints regarding the importance of pronunciation ，their perceived goal ，and experienced difficulty in the learning of pronunciation．Second ，from the perspective of students ，it tries to ask about teacher ’s pronunciation teaching practice ，including teaching emphasis ，classroom techniques and teachers ’evaluation of students ’pronunciation performance．It is concluded that there are mismatches between students ’perception of their pronunciation needs and the instruction they received．This paper ends with suggestions from the perspective of teaching methods ，classroom evaluation and instructional materials．Keywords ：Communicative Language Teaching （CLT ）；pronunciation teaching ；feedback and evalua-tion ；phonological features中图分类号：G420文献标识码：A1IntroductionPronunciation ，vocabulary as well as grammar are three basic components of a language．But with the in-fluence of the cognitive approach in the 1960s ，lan-guage was viewed as a rule －governed behavior ，deem-phasizing pronunciation in favor of grammar and vocab-ulary．Pronunciation began to be studied systematically only a short time after Communicative Language Teach-ing （CLT ），which holds that communication is the pri-mary purpose of language．This focus on language com-munication brings renewed urgency to the teaching of pronunciation．Empirical evidence indicates that there is a threshold level of pronunciation for nonnative speakers of English ；if they fall below this threshold level ，they will have oral communication problems no matter how excellent and extensive their control of Eng-lish grammar and vocabulary might be （Hinofotis ＆Bailey 1980［1］）．Chinese tertiary level students have undergone a systematic instruction of English for at711least6years before they are enrolled in university．However，most of them are confronted with oral com-munication problems．Certainly，oral communication problems arise from many factors，but this paper main-ly focuses on to what extent pronunciation is likely to lead to breakdown in communication，and in turn，sur-veys how teachers can most effectively teach aspects of the sound system to English majors at Inner Mongolia University of Technology，at the same time aligning pronunciation instruction with the principles of commu-nicative language teaching．2Research on the Acquisition of PronunciationRecently，the overriding concern of pronunciation experts has been with the emphasis given in the classroom to segmental and suprasegmental aspects of the second language．The segment－based approach involves the elicitation of individual sound and syllables，while the suprasegmental approach focuses on larger units incorporating stress，rhythm and intonation that transcend the segmental level．The findings of a number of classroom－based studies suggest the teaching of segmentals did not result in significant improvement in spontaneously produced speech（Brown1995［2］；Elliott1997［3］），while other studies show that suprasegmental instruction had improved significantly in both comprehensibility and fluency by the end of course（Derwing et al，1998［4］）．Despite these findings，there is a lack of a clear consensus regarding the best way to teach pronunciation．In matters of the teaching of pronunciation，pronunciation’s importance has always been determined by intuition rather than research （Levis2005，369［5］）．Very little attention was paid to second language students’own perception of their needs．Marianne Celce－Murcia et al．（2010［6］）suggests that to better meet our students’needs，we need to take into consideration such factors as our learners’age，exposure to the target language，amount and type of prior pronunciation instruction，etc．In view of these，the researchers examined students’prior background and their beliefs concerning the importance of pronunciation，the perceived goal of pronunciation and experienced difficulties in the learning of pronunciation．This paper also examined the pronunciation from the perspective of students to find whether there were mismatches between students’perception of their pronunciation needs and the instruction they received．3Study Design3．1Subjects76first－year English majors from3regular classes at Inner Mongolia University of Technology participated in this study（Altogether there should be 78students，but two students were absent on that day）．75（98．68%）participants reported they had not had separate pronunciation class in middle school or high school．Pronunciation teaching and practice were integrated into regular English class．Teachers did spend some sections of time exclusively on pronunciation．A majority of participants（65．79%）reported only20percentage of time was devoted to pronunciation training or practice，in which teachers focused on leading students to read new words and then providing correction．Only4（5．26%）participants reported that teachers made a particular attempt to focus on individual consonant and vowel sounds．3．2InstrumentsThe main research instrument used for this study was a copy of questionnaire which contains22 questions，including both closed and open－ended questions．The first part of the questionnaire provided the participants prior profile in terms of their exposure to target language learning and the amount and type of prior pronunciation instruction．The rest of the questionnaire consisted of three types of questions．The first set of questions（Questions5－8）asked about the participants’views concerning the importance of pronunciation，their perceived goal，and experienced difficulty in the learning of pronunciation．The second set（Questions9－18）asked about teacher’s pronunciation teaching practice，including teaching emphasis，classroom techniques and teachers’evaluation of students’pronunciation performance from the perspective of students．The last set questions （Questions19－21）asked about participants’811evaluation of the textbook．The last one（Question22）was an open－ended question in search of participants’suggestions on the improvement of pronunciation teaching．3．3Data Collection and Data AnalysisThe questionnaire was pilot－tested with20first year English majors in the mid－term and then revised．It was originally written in English．With the feedback from pilot survey，Chinese equivalents were provided for some technical terms in order for students to better understand．Besides，some questions were added on the evaluation of the final pronunciation test．After that，a large－scale survey was administered to first year English majors at Inner Mongolia University of Technology at the end of December of2010．A total of76questionnaires were distributed．The response rate was100percent．4Results and Discussion4．1Beliefs Concerning the Importance of Pro-nunciation，Perceived Goal of Pronunciation and Expe-rienced Difficulties in the Learning of Pronunciation．Question5asked students to rank，among gram-mar，vocabulary and pronunciation，which aspect was the most important．Vocabulary（55．25%）ranked first，followed by grammar（25%）and pronunciation （19．75%）．In terms of their current situation of pro-nunciation，the great majority of students（80．26%）were not so much satisfied or not satisfied at all．As far as perceived goal of pronunciation learning is con-cerned，47（61．84%）students aimed to approximate native or native－like pronunciation，while28（36．84%）students strived to be understood by listen-ers．When asked about the difficulties they experi-enced speaking in English，46participants perceived that pronunciation was a contributing factor to their communication problems．When asked about what pro-nunciation problems they typically experienced，stress，rhythm and intonation were all mentioned as major are-as of difficulty．From these data，it can be seen clearly that more efforts should be made to raise students’awareness of the significance of pronunciation．Probably，with the influence of prior teaching practice and college en-trance examination，students tend to attach great im-portance to vocabulary and grammar．It is illustrated by the open－ended question，in which some students re-ported they had been directed to do exercises with an emphasis on reading，grammar and vocabulary，neg-lecting pronunciation to a certain extent．Teachers sel-dom systematically introduced the concept of the sylla-ble，stress，tone and rhythm，etc．Therefore，the pri-ority is to help them transform their conception in the teaching of pronunciation：pronunciation is no less im-portant than vocabulary and grammar in language com-munication．It is noteworthy that a great majority of students （80．26%）are not satisfied with their pronunciation and a majority of students（（61．84%）consider ap-proximation of native－like pronunciation as their pro-nunciation goal．For one thing，it shows students have a strong desire to improve their pronunciation．For an-other，an unrealistic and impractical goal of pronuncia-tion might be frustrating because seeking for a native－like pronunciation is likely to form a negative image of oneself．If one sees himself as a failed speaker，it im-pedes one’s progress．So as early as1949，Abercrom-bie argued that“most language learners need no more than a comfortably intelligible pronunciation．”（120［7］）．Intelligibility refers to the extent to which a listener actually understands an utterance or message （Derwing＆Munro2005［8］）．Therefore，teachers of pronunciation should help students adjust their view of pronunciation learning and set realistic goals for in-struction．Pronunciation instruction should be viewed in a much more positive light rather than as a way of fixing or removing an obstacle．In terms of their perceived difficulties，students for the most part（77．63%）indicated that supraseg-mentals including stress，rhythm and tone were difficult for them．These features cause difficulty partly because they are inherently difficult to teach or to learn．It might also be a matter of salience．Segmentals have the advantage of being represented orthographically，and despite the lack of many consistent sound/symbol cor-respondences in English，the basic relationship be-tween segmentals and letters is obvious to students．Rhythm，intonation and stress are much less obvious properties of speech partly because they are not repre-sented in standard orthography．Awareness of supraseg-mentals，especially in the absence of instruction，is911limited．Therefore，suprasegmentals are likely to be-come quite elusive for students to capture．4．2Teachers’Pronunciation Teaching Practice from the Perspective of StudentsThe goal of this study was to examine pronuncia-tion from the perspective of students．The researchers also asked about students’anticipation from the class and their observation of teachers’teaching practice in terms of teaching focus，classroom techniques and classroom evaluation．11（14．47%）participants reported，at the be-ginning of pronunciation class，they had expected more attention or instruction time would be paid to the in-struction of vowels and consonants，20（26．32%）participants cited stress and rhythm，27（35．53）par-ticipants reported connected speech like assimilation，linking and elision，and another18（23．68%）indica-ted prominence and intonation in discourse．Whereas，in teaching practice，29（38．16）participants reported that teachers had focused their attention on the instruc-tion of vowels and consonants，11（14．47%）partici-pants reported teachers’emphasis on stress and rhythm，19（25%）participants reported teachers’fo-cus on connected speech，and17（22．37%）partici-pants reported teachers’stress on prominence and in-tonation in discourse．When asked about classroom techniques in the teaching of pronunciation，the top five in terms of fre-quency are chanting（61response），minimal pairs （58response），drills（52response），video（32re-sponse）and pair work（30response）（allowed for more than one choice per person）．However，when it comes to the most helpful classroom techniques to their learning of pronunciation，43（56．68%）participants reported they benefited most from teachers’articulatory explanation and description of phonetic symbols，16 participants（21．05%）reported visual aids like vide-os，pictures and slides，11（14．47）participants felt imitation and individual repetition such as chanting，minimal pairs and drills were most helpful，and6（7．8%）participants reported pair work and group in-teraction．In terms of how evaluation is carried out，50（65．79%）participants reported they did not have any other kind of testing and evaluation except the final exam，and26（34．21%）participants reported they had a midterm exam，but the test only examined their ability to listen to certain words and sentences，i．e．their ability to perceive，neglecting their ability to pro-duce．As to the final examination，41（53．95%）par-ticipants reported the final examination could reflect and check their pronunciation proficiency little or not at all，22（28．95%）participants reported to a certain extent and2（17．1%）participants reported completely or largely．The results of the survey indicate that there are mismatches between the students’perceptions of their pronunciation needs and the instruction they received．Apparently，students are more apt to be exposed to teaching that focuses on the articulation of segmentals although attention to suprasegmentals is strongly advo-cated by students，as suggested by the survey．There are two possible reasons for this．For one thing，teach-ers lack a principled methodology of teaching pronunci-ation effectively because of lack of training．It is repor-ted30%of ESL teachers had formal training in the teaching of pronunciation（Macdonald，Yule＆Powers 1994［9］）．Similarly，there are limited numbers of Eng-lish teachers in the Chinese context who have received training in teaching pronunciation．For another，teach-ers lack the knowledge of students need even though they are equipped with certain phonological knowl-edge．Therefore it might be better for teachers to make a need analysis in advance which would provide a basis for designing lessons．There also exist mismatches between the methods used by teachers and favored by students．Firstly，methods like chanting，drills and minimal pairs em-ployed most frequently by teachers are reported to be less helpful．One possible reason might be that all these methods and activities are primarily segment－based，that is，they focus on the perception and pro-duction of individual phones，words or isolated sen-tences．These techniques seem to require that students direct their attention to the forms which can not lead to a spontaneous production of learning．Secondly，a ma-jority of（56．68%）participants reported they benefi-ted most from teachers’articulatory explanation and description of phonetic symbols，and6（14．47%）participants reported pair work and group interaction are most beneficial to their learning of pronunciation．That does not necessarily mean articulatory explanation021and description of phonetic symbols are more beneficial to students pronunciation improvements than interactive group work．It is possibly due to a focus on the tradi-tional teacher－led activities such as drills and minimal －pair work in the teaching of pronunciation．As a re-sult，students have little or no access to some integra-tive communicative activities like role－play and group work in class．In fact，experts strongly suggest students be encouraged to work together in class to rehearse real －life language．（Scales et al．2006，735［10］）．In this way，not only can students become more engaged and involved in class，but also they can get feedback from their peers and monitor each other．It is surprising to note that evaluation is carried out scarcely，only once or once every the other month over the whole semester and with a pure emphasis on listening．An important point to remember is that pro-nunciation involves not only perception，but also pro-duction and the application of relevant phonological rules．Therefore，pronunciation assessment could be one component of a formal oral proficiency test，or on-going evaluation with feedback including self－monito-ring，peer feedback and teacher correction，or class-room achievement．Many participants expressed their desire for more practice opportunities in class and more individual feedback regarding their pronunciation．Feedback may be delivered either by peers or by the teacher．Normally，feedback from peers is more ac-ceptable and more accessible than feedback from teach-ers（Celce－Murcia，2010），which makes it a valua-ble aid to improved pronunciation．Therefore，it is rec-ommended that group work be organized to optimize the limited class time so that more students can be involved and get guidance and assistance either from the teacher or their peers．4．3Students’Evaluation of the Textbook and Their Own PerformanceAs to the pronunciation textbook used currently，7（9．21%）students reported the textbook contributed to the improvement of their pronunciation greatly，35（46．05%）students reported the textbook was kind of helpful to the improvement of their pronunciation，34（44．74%）students reported the textbook did little help，and even some of them seldom spent time read-ing it．When probing into the reason for that，some students thought there were too many complicated tech-nical terms in the text which hindered their comprehen-sion，and some complained the textbook is too monot-onous and obscure．By analyzing the textbook currently used，we found，like most other course books for pronunciation，a phonemic alphabet is used and important phonologi-cal features are referred to．It deals with the widest range of features：vowels and consonants，clusters，linking，stress，rhythm，pitch and intonation．It focu-ses on oral and written illustration of how the feature is produced and when it occurs within spoken discourse．The exercises mainly involve listening discrimination for students to discriminate the feature and oral read-ings of minimal－pair sentences，short dialogues，etc．with special attention paid to the highlighted feature．Obviously，the practice does not extend beyond the controlled phase of repetition or oral reading．No won-der students complain its monotonousness and are un-willing to read it and practice．Celce－Murcia（2010，44）suggests classroom materials and the associated tasks should reflect the interests and needs of the learn-ers and create a desire in them to communicate in the target language．Therefore，more work needs to be done to supplement the textbook．For example，more exercises like information－gap activities，cued dia-logues，role play and problem－solving activities could be incorporated into the textbook so that students can use the newly acquired feature in more creative or com-municative exchanges．5Conclusions and ImplicationsThe researchers found there were mismatches be-tween students’perception of their pronunciation needs and the instruction they received，and accordingly，students were not quite satisfied with their respective improvements in pronunciation and their teachers’pro-nunciation teaching practice．Based on these findings，some suggestions from the perspective of teaching methods，classroom evaluation and instructional mate-rials were put forward．Firstly，teachers of pronunciation should help students raise their awareness of the significance of pro-nunciation and adjust their view of pronunciation learn-ing and set realistic goals of pronunciation．Secondly，a need analysis must be made before-121hand to select and order the phonological features to be practiced so as to target learners’needs in a principled way．Thirdly，pronunciation should not be taught to learners as an isolated phenomenon．Instead，pronun-ciation practice should be integrated into a broadly communicative language framework by providing students with more interactive activities．Fourthly，testing and evaluation should be unde-niably interwoven and essential to the entire process and cycle of curriculum development and teaching．Finally，with respect to the textbook，we argue the attention be paid to both the traditional teacher－led activities and communicative activities that contrib-ute to develop learners’communicative ability as well as the ability to perform a given feature successfully．Further research can also be conducted to survey teachers’attitudes regarding their pronunciation beliefs to find whether there exists mismatch between their be-liefs and practice．Bibliography：［1］Hinofotis，F．＆Bailey，K．M．American undergradu-ates’reactions to the communication skills of for-eign teaching assistants［J］．In J．C．Fisher，M．A．Clarke，＆J．Schachter（Eds．）On 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different types of instruction［J］．Lan-guage Learning，1994，44（01）：75－100．［10］Scales，J．Wennerstrom，et al．Language learn-ers’perceptions of accents［J］．TESOL Quarter-ly，2006，40（04）：715－737．交际英语教学模式下的大学英语语音教学研究赵欣，姬京彤，王斯琴，宿桂梅（内蒙古工业大学外国语学院，内蒙古呼和浩特010080）摘要：针对大学生语音认知及他们对教师语音教学实践感知这一问题，对内蒙古工业大学英语专业一年级76名学生进行问卷调查。