Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine how English pronunciation instruction is dealt with in the teacher preparation programme at Japanese universities and to suggest how the trainees can be better prepared in terms of pronunciation instruction before they start teaching in classroom settings. The literature review verifies vicious cycle of pronunciation of instruction, where 1) teachers are not confident in pronunciation instruction, 2) teachers cannot teach pronunciation sufficiently, 3) secondary school students do not learn pronunciation sufficiently from their teachers, 4) university students cannot pronounce English correctly, 5) pronunciation instruction is not mandatory for obtaining a teaching licence and 6) curriculum for teacher-training course is insufficient; that is, university students do not learn about pronunciation instruction. These stages 1)-6) circulate and it is obviously necessary to stop the circulation at some point. Thus the previous literature stresses the importance of teaching university students the skills to instruct pronunciation to their future students, these skills referring to-how they should deliver the knowledge of pronunciation to students so that they can understand it fully' and-how they should correct students' inappropriate pronunciation into intelligible one'. However the author doubts that these suggestions are enough for the trainees to get prepared for teaching in classroom settings, and therefore proposes that they should be given opportunities to consider and practise 1) choosing appropriate teaching materials, 2) giving-clear instructions' of tasks to students and 3) making pronunciation tasks student-centred and communicative with adequate student-talking time.
Author Information
Akihito Desaki, Waseda University Junior and Senior High School, Japan
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress