A conversation analytic perspective on teaching English pronunciation : The case of speech rhythm

Reed, Beatrice Szczepek (2012) A conversation analytic perspective on teaching English pronunciation : The case of speech rhythm. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 22 (1). pp. 67-87. ISSN 0802-6106

Abstract

Recent decades have seen an ongoing debate over the implications of English as a global lingua franca for English teaching methodologies and curricula, particularly regarding pronunciation. The two opposing perspectives are native-like accuracy on the one hand, and international intelligibility on the other. This paper suggests a third approach, which starts from an interactional perspective on phonetics and prosody, and asks, first, what the interactional relevance of individual pronunciation features may be, and, second, how non-native speakers would benefit from acquiring them. Taking speech rhythm as an example, the paper argues that as long as non-native speakers are able to accomplish the interactional projects they set out to accomplish, non-native features of their accent variety need not be made prominent in pronunciation teaching.