Masum Billah
When the second language learners can pronounce the English words almost perfectly like native speakers, they can draw the attention of others more easily. They are likely to be understood even if they make errors in other areas. But the same group of learners who cannot pronounce words well are not understood well, even if their grammar is perfect. That means, humans have the tendency to judge people by the way they speak, and so learners with poor pronunciation may be judged as incompetent, uneducated or lacking in knowledge. So, pronunciation matters.
It is one of the most difficult aspects of English to acquire, and need explicit help from the teacher. Therefore, some sort of pronunciation instruction in the class is necessary. In order to dothat teachers should have well acquaintance with phonetic symbols. If they can learn institutionally, it is well. If not, Oxford Dictionary deals with phonetic symbols and a teacher can use it going through the instructions given there.Sounds play an important role in communication, foreign language teachers must attribute proper importance to teaching pronunciation in their classes. It is evident that communication is a mutual relationship between the speaker and the hearer. This means that one must comprehend what he/she hears in the target language and must produce the sounds of the language he/she is trying to learn accurately. Unless he has sufficient knowledge of the sound patterns of the target language, he can neither encode a message to anybody nor decode the message sent by another person by learning the sounds of the target language within his mother tongue. Therefore, pronunciation instruction is of great importance for successful oral communication to take place since it is an important ingredient of the communicative competence (Hismanoglu, 2006).
It is the thought of many native speakers that a second language English speaker possesses a low level of fluency when his pronunciation is incorrect. This can cost one a job, a relationship or just be plainly frustrating. Pronunciation mistakes may impede someone from being understood and affect results at school and in works. The earlier one focuses and masters the basics of English pronunciation, the faster one becomes fluent. Our ear is so important in this process and focuses on clearly hearing and then speaking the sounds of English leads to large gains in fluency later on. But it’s a fact that teachers find it difficult to spend enough time on pronunciation with students. One class accommodates many students with different needs.
Pronunciation may be the least option there. However, English teachers should make the students understand the significance of pronunciation and can dedicate a portion of their class time for this purpose.
A common mistake made by many international students studying English as a second language is not paying adequate attention to English pronunciation. This underestimation of the importance of pronunciation is mainly because students tend to think mistakenly that pronunciation is less important compared to other aspects of the English language such as grammar, lexicology and vocabulary. Pronunciation is vital to proper communication because the incorrect use of pronunciation inevitably leads to the message being misunderstood by the recipient. Pronunciation of the letter sounds in words as well as syllable emphasis on parts of words will more often than not change the words meaning and context drastically thereby irreversibly altering the meaning of the sentence being communicated. Another important aspect is, the proper use of English pronunciation inclines to highlight and add value to an individual speaking English. Suppose, a student’s grammar and vocabulary is exceptionally good, he or she may be able to write good English. But, if that same student lacks a fundamental knowledge of pronunciation despite having an excellent knowledge of grammar, his or her communication in English will be severely impeded.
Students wishing to excel at the English language have to give the knowledge of pronunciation a higher priority. According to Fangzhi (1998:39), that it is important to pay attention to pronunciation since it results in whether or not someone's message can be passed or not by other people. Moreover, Gilbert (cited in Otlowsky, 2004:3) stated that if someone cannot hear English well, she or he is cut off from the language. And if someone cannot be understood easily, she or he is cut off from conversation with native speakers. According to Penny Ur (2001), Jack C.
Richard (2002), Pronunciation is the sound of the language, or phonology; stress and rhythm; and intonation and includes the role of individual sounds and segmental and supra segmental sounds. Moreover, Otlowski (2004:1) stated that Pronunciation is a way that is accepted or generally understood. From those statements above, we can conclude that pronunciation is the way of someone produces segmental and supra segmental sound that is accepted or generally understood. According to Jenkins (2007) mentioned on her article, Global English and Teaching Pronunciation, that an implication global English for pronunciation teaching that is students should be given plenty of exposure in their pronunciation classrooms to other non-native accents of English so that they can understand then easily even if a speaker has not yet managed to acquire the core features.
Pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds. The habit of producing a sound is acquired by repeating it over and over again and by being corrected when it is pronounced wrongly.
Learning to pronounce a second language means building up new pronunciation habits and overcoming the bias of the first language (Cook, 1996). It includes attention to the particular sounds of a language, aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm how the voice is projected (voice quality) and, in its broadest definition, attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the way we speak a language.
Griffiths (2007), Integrating Pronunciation into Classroom Activities, found that addressing issues of pronunciation regularly during the language feedback or group correction stage of lesson helps to focus learners' attention on its importance and lead to more positive experiences.
He also described that pronunciation work can be kept simple and employ exercises which are both accessible and enjoyable for students, whatever their level is. Whenever students do a freer speaking activity, the main aim is usually at developing their spoken fluency in the language.
Based on those statements above, Okita (2007), Teaching Pronunciation, concluded the activities that can be passed in teaching pronunciation are: (a) explaining Daniel Jones' phonemic symbols, using a chart of English vowels and consonants; (b) using minimal pair exercises; (c)getting learners to memorize pronunciation patterns to predict on which vowel the primary stress is placed in a word, and; (d)distinguishing the differences in the sounds of a vowel or consonant in a given word. “Listen carefully and repeat what I say" (1940s-1950s). In this orientation, the activities students are to repeat the words said by their teacher for several times. The areas of English pronunciation are categorized into two such as segmental (e.g. English consonant and vowel sounds) and supra segmental (e.g. stress, linking, weak forms, intonation.). Teachers teaching English should make the students familiar with these categories.
(Masum Billah Works as a specialist in BRAC Education Programme and formerly worked in Cadet Colleges and Rajuk College.)
