Bringing pronunciation back into the ESL/EFL classroom: Current research trends and recommendations for teachers and teacher trainers

Abstract

Pronunciation instruction in English as a second/foreign language classes has often been limited or
outright ignored in communicative approaches to second language (L2) teaching. In parallel,
pronunciation research in the last two decades has witnessed a major paradigm shift driven by the
premise that learners’ speech needs to be intelligible and not necessarily native-like. L2 pedagogy,
however, has not taken full advantage of the substantial body of research produced under this
approach. The goals of this paper, therefore, are to bridge the gap between scholars and practitioners
and to make recommendations for teachers and teacher trainers. The paper reviews the effectiveness
of pronunciation instruction, synthesizes research on what aspects of English pronunciation should be
taught and how, and examines English teachers’ cognitions, beliefs, and training in pronunciation
instruction. The last section discusses learners’ goals and identities regarding English pronunciation
within the English as a Lingua Franca framework.