ABSTRACT
As in every aspect of language teaching, decisions about priorities in pronunciation have to be decided upon; indeed they are probably more acute in pronunciation teaching than in other areas. Priorities in grammar are not too difficult to decide upon: as a rule of thumb the simpler the structure, the earlier it is taught. Similarly early vocabulary can be semantically selected on the basis of relevance to the type of learner (i.e. child or adult, local chatting versus business meetings, etc.). But pronunciation has to take a back seat; no fixed order of teaching sounds can be used because pronunciation usually has to take second place to grammar (and to a lesser extent, to semantics). Yet some sounds are clearly more important (carry a higher ‘functional load’, i.e. have a higher frequency and involve more minimal pairs) than others and, even though there can be no strict order of teaching sounds, decisions can be made about which (mis)pronunciations should be corrected at any stage of acquisition.
