TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION FOR USE IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT DR LAURA RUPP

GLOBAL ENGLISH English is today’s leading international language - 80% of communication in English is between non- native speakers (Osimk, n.d.) 2

Faculteit der Letteren THE SITUATION ILLUSTRATED Smack the Pony: English as a Foreign Language 3 It is no longer the ‘English as we have known it, and have taught it in the past as a foreign language’ (Graddol, 2006: 11)

QUESTIONS What are the implications of the global use of English for English language teaching? Should the approach to the teaching of English pronunciation change? How do we prepare students best for using English in the 21st century? 4

COOK (2002) Cook (2002: 335) argues that L2 speakers need to be seen as people in their own right: ‘The crucial implication for education is ensuring that the standards against which L2 users are measured should be L2 user standards, not L1 native speaker standards. Success should be measured by the ability to use the second language effectively.’ 5

SOME PERSPECTIVES ON “ERROR” Brutt-Griffler (2002: 129): ‘any language is the linguistic expression of the speech community that speaks it. It is contradictory to claim that a speech community can speak its own language with ‘errors’.’ MacKenzie (2014: 66): ‘It needs to be recognized that for the majority of speakers in ELF [English as a Lingua Franca] interactions, the ‘errors’ simply don’t matter.’ 6

Faculteit der Letteren UITSPRAAKGIDS ENGELS FOR PROFESSIONALS 7

LANGUAGE AWARENESS (WHITE ET AL., 2000) Language Awareness does not consider language to be ‘a static entity to be taught through the analysis of decontextualised sentences.’ ‘Language Awareness […] seeks to move students from intuitive powers to conscious awareness of how users create meaning through language.’ ‘ Tradition has the study of language as an end itself. In contrast, Language Awareness has empowerment of the individual through language as an end.’ 8

STRATEGIC LANGUAGE LEARNING/USE (RUPP, 2013) Strategic language learning challenges students to explore English pronunciation from a range of different perspectives in an “educational arena” that offers a variety of different tools. The educational arena is a learning environment that gives students the opportunity to make an informed choice & to assume agency regarding their English pronunciation (within defined boundaries). 9

TENETS OF STRATEGIC LANGUAGE LEARNING/USE 1.To advance knowledge of the conventions of standardized English in tandem with familiarity with variation in English 10

ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA (ELF) ‘an additionally acquired language system which serves as a means of communication for speakers of different first languages’ (Jenkins, 2011: 2) 11

RECURRENT ELF FEATURES (SEIDLHOFER, 2004) Voice project (Vienna) 1.No use of the third person singular –s (I like, she like) 2.Use who and which interchangeably (things who, people which) 3.Omit or insert articles (to have a respect for, to be very good person) 4.Pluralize non-countable nouns (researches, advices) 5.Use the demonstrative this with both singular and plural nouns (this chair/chairs) 6.Use ‘general’ verbs (to make a discussion/survey/bicycle) 12

RESEARCH ON GENERAL ELF FEATURES Dewey (2007): omission of third person singular –s is variable Pang & Ann (2000): International word stress rule? Stress on the syllable with the longest vowel, as in –ate, -ise: educáte, participáte, supervíse, organíze Ranta (2006: 107): extended use of progressive is to make verbs more prominent, ‘attention-catching’ Hello my name is I am coming from er Romania where I am a PHD student --> Seidlhofer (2010): features in ELF are naturally occurring developments 13

TENETS OF STRATEGIC LANGUAGE LEARNING/USE 2.To train a set of skills for English language use (e.g. reception of L2 accents, accommodation --> repair strategies) 14

INTELLIGIBILITY: THE LINGUA FRANCA CORE 15 Core featuresNon-core features All consonants, except:Substitution of th (except by /s/ and /z/) Consonant clusters, tapping t  ɾ (e.g. water) Natural speech (weak forms, assimilation, etc.) Aspiration (e.g. p h it – bit)Rhoticity (?) Voicing and vowel length (e.g. back – bag) Vowel quality (consistent) (e.g. hev  hæv, reks  ræks) Nuclear stress (I asked HER) (not you) Word stress Jenkins (2000), Osimk (n.d.)

REPAIR STRATEGIES THE BOAT I:I mean we don’t have problems … we all get … N:and we are in the same es-cool [school] A:yeah? I:yeah, so she say__ N:yeah, how do you say? the es-cool The ssssssschool [lengthening] A:Yeah … in the same school and in the same boat I think. We understand you. We are all foreigners. I:All foreigners (laughing) 16

TENETS OF STRATEGIC LANGUAGE LEARNING/USE 3.To raise students’ awareness of the implications that particular choices regarding pronunciation have for their professional and everyday lives (e.g. intelligibility, credibility/acceptibility) 17

TENETS OF STRATEGIC LANGUAGE LEARNING/USE 4.to develop the ability and encourage agency to utilize strategic language knowledge in actual situations of English language use (including the construction of identity through accent) 18

ACTIVITY (5 MIN) Do you consider there to be features of English pronunciation that students could take agency over? 19

CONCLUSION (CF. HUDLEY & MALLINSON, 2013) What is a successful user of English in the 21 st century? Students (who) can do English! To do English is fun! 20

YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

REFERENCES Brutt-Griffler, J World Englishes: A Study of Its Development: Clevendon: Multilingual Matters. Cook, V Portraits of the L2 User. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters. Crystal, D English as a Global Language. 2 nd edition. Cambridge University Press. Gradoll, D English next. British Council, London. Hudley, A. & C. Mallinson, We Do Language: English Language Variation in the Secondary English Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press, Jenkins, J The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jenkins, J ‘A sociolinguistically-based, empirically researched pronunciation syllabus for English as a second language.’ Applied Linguistics 23: MacKenzie, I English as a Lingua Franca: Theorizing and Teaching English. London: Routledge. 22

REFERENCES Munro, M. & T. Derwing ‘Foreign accent, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners.’ Language Learning 45: Osimk, R. ‘(n.d.) ‘Testing the intelligibility of ELF sounds.’ IATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group Newsletter 42. Pang, L. & J. Ann ‘Stress and duration in three varieties of English.’ World Englishes 20:1-27. Ranta, E ‘The ‘attractive’ progressive – why use the –ing form in English as a Lingua Franca?’ Nordic Journal of English studies 5: Rupp, L Uitspraakgids Engels voor Professionals. Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij. Seidlhofer, B ‘Research perspectives on teaching English as a lingua franca.’ Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24: White, L. et al Language Awareness: A History and Its Implementations. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 23