Control and assessment

Control and assessment of pronunciation takes into account types of mistakes produced by students while speaking. It is necessary to differentiate phonetic mistakes and phonological errors. The former ones affect the quality of pronunciation, while the latter ones impact the content of speech.

In general secondary schools where one of the main principles in teaching pronunciation is the approximation principle, phonetic mistakes are not taken into account. This is so because the main aim of teaching to be achieved in these schools is minimal communicative efficiency. Only the presence and number of phonological errors matter.

The situation is different with specialised language schools, gymnasiums and lyceums. In this type of schools the aim of teaching approaches that of foreign languages departments: mastering a foreign language at the level of the communicative competence. In this case both phonetic mistakes and phonological errors should be taken into account while assessing student speech.

Conclusions

In this talk, we have defined the term of pronunciation in its wide meaning as the sound7 structure, the syllabic system, the word stress and the intonation of a language. We have considered the role of pronunciation in performing different skills and have seen that pronouncing accompanies all kinds of language activity but is most obviously exposed externally when speaking and reading aloud. We have also found that listening and pronunciation habits compose an inseparable unity based on interaction of articulation, aural and visual analysers. We have then come to the conclusion that the approximation principle lies in the core of communicative efficiency in pronunciation. Having solved the problem of phonetic minimum, we have been able to outline three main stages of teaching pronunciation habits. Finally, we have subdivided exercises in teaching pronunciation into those aimed at forming pronunciation habits and the ones aimed at developing and improving pronunciation skill.

Discussion

1. How do you understand communicative efficiency in pronunciation and the idea of approximate correctness?

2. Dwell upon the problem of phonetic minimum.

3. Outline stages of teaching pronunciation habits.

4. Characterise the orientation-preparatory stage.

5. Characterise the standardisation-modificatory stage.

6. Characterise the mofidication-situational stage.

7. In which groups would you divide L2 sounds when teaching pronunciation?

8. How would you introduce seemingly identical and alien phonemes?

9. What activities would you suggest for developing pronunciation skill?

10. What pronunciation games could you suggest to your primary students?

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13