preview

Difficulties In Teaching Pronunciation

Decent Essays

Most of English teachers tend to teach their non-native students grammar rules and vocabulary, get them to participate in communicative activities and become qualified in reading and listening. As a result, teaching pronunciation is not taken into account due to teachers’ assumption of having a lot to do rather than focusing on proper pronunciation. Apparently, they claim that students will acquire it throughout learning. Therefore, there is no need to allocate time for teaching pronunciation. Accordingly, ESL learners encounter many difficulties in proper pronunciation.
First, we can distinguish between “accents” and “dialect”. The former refers to the differences only in pronunciation that may occur due to geographical differences, social and cultural differences, and different educational background. The latter indicates the variety of a language, which differs in things other than pronunciation such as vocabulary, grammar, and word order. We can spot some of the factors that affect the pronunciation of ESL learners especially Arabs. Accordingly, the interference of the learners’ native language and the learner’s age can determine the accuracy of his pronunciation; the younger is he the easier he will master good pronunciation. Further, the amount of exposure to English exceeds the ability to speak native-like English, especially if the learner is living in an English speaking environment.
From my personal experience, when I was an Arab ESL language learner, my friends

Get Access