PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AS PANACEA TO STUDENTS’ ORAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Abstract
Pronunciation is the standard way in which words sound when spoken to reflect the exact tone despite one's cultural background. Pronunciation instruction is increasingly popular in language classrooms around the world most especially in second language and foreign language contexts. This study therefore examined how sounds are taught at the secondary school level. It also aimed at establishing the effect of teachers’ qualifications in the teaching of pronunciation. Two public junior secondary schools (experimental and control groups) were chosen from Ijebu Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State with the entire JSS 2 students as sample for the study. The study was a long term project conducted in a session (first, second and third terms) with four (4) self-designed instruments used for data collection: Moderated English Alphabet (MEA), Sounds and Letters of Alphabets Teaching (SLAT) Teacher’s Instructional Guide (TIG) and Sound Model Evaluator (SME). Findings revealed that students exposed to the treatment utilised the opportunities of one task leading to another; the moderated English Alphabet providing the basic for sounds and letters of Alphabets and the Sound Model Evaluator assessing the processed sound production of each group Since sounds play an important role in communication, it was concluded that sound teaching should be incorporated into language curriculum at both primary and secondary school levels. Since English Alphabet has no importance on pronunciation teaching, it was also suggested that Moderated English Alphabet (MEA) and Sounds and Letters of Alphabet (SLA) English Alphabet should be used in pronunciation teaching. Language teachers at different levels must attribute proper importance to teaching pronunciation in their classes. In order to achieve the goals of pronunciation teaching, area of specialisation should be strictly adhered to for subject allocation from primary to secondary school so that Language specialists would be the one to handle pronunciation teaching at all levels.
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