ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on ways of offering a second language (L2) teacher development course designed to prepare language teachers to teach the pronunciation of English. Topics include what pronunciation teachers need to know (i.e. knowledge about phonetics and phonology), what teachers need to know how to do (i.e. pedagogical content knowledge), alternative structures for a teacher development course, application tasks designed for pre-service teachers, a synthesis of research-based implications for teaching, professional development resources, teaching resources, and where to turn to learn more. On completing the chapter, readers will have a clear sense of how to structure a teacher preparation course of this kind, what some of the more useful resource materials are, what might serve as core course components and where to go to learn more. The chapter’s central theme is the importance of distinguishing between knowledge about phonetics and phonology and pedagogical content knowledge. Both domains of teacher knowledge need to be given balanced, integrated attention in a teacher development course. To this aim, the chapter discusses how to make efficient use of:
textbooks specifically designed to prepare pronunciation teachers;
journal articles and book chapters of three types (empirical research reports, conceptual discussions, ones focused on instructional techniques);
activity recipe collections;
pronunciation-centred classroom textbooks;
opportunities for PPTs to tutor or teach the pronunciation of English to NNESs.
As an aid for syllabus design, the chapter includes a concise listing of measurable learning outcomes for a teacher development course. An innovation is the chapter’s call for a principled restructuring of how to sequence topics in phonetics and phonology when training teachers. It recommends early attention to macro-level topics (e.g. thought grouping, prominence, word stress) as requisite starting points before giving subsequent attention to more mezzo-level and micro-level concerns (e.g. phonemes, sound assimilations, features of connected speech, sound–spelling correspondences). The chapter’s final section suggests ways of providing novice pronunciation teachers with opportunities to read and discuss contemporary scholarship; to review, analyse and compare notes on the quality of pedagogical materials; to learn how to gather and analyse their own recorded samples of L2 speech; and to tutor or teach the pronunciation of English to non-native English speakers. Current and prospective language teachers who are conscientious in completing a course along the lines described in the chapter should be well positioned to serve as effective pronunciation teachers.
Have you ever attended a course in which you recognized that the instructor knew the subject matter well but for some reason seemed unable to teach it successfully? Most of us have had such experiences though the underlying complications might be difficult to identify. Some teachers are knowledgeable about subject matter but less capable of sparking students’ interests. Others may be ineffective course planners, disorganized speakers, unimaginative when illustrating concepts or lacking requisite classroom management skills. There are several supports for course instructors who face such general challenges (e.g. Davis, 2009; McKeachie & Svinichi, 2014) and resources of this kind are recommended to all faculty, including second language (L2) teacher educators. This chapter, however, speaks to the challenges L2 teacher educators face when preparing L2 teachers to teach the pronunciation of English.
The chapter’s underlying premise is that there are notable differences between knowing subject matter well and knowing how to teach it successfully to others. The label specialists in L2 teacher education use to refer to the subject matter of pronunciation teaching is ‘knowledge about phonetics and phonology’ (Gregory, 2005, p. 201). The label used to refer to a teacher’s knowledge of how to teach this subject matter effectively to others is pronunciation-centred ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ (Johnson 2009, p. 12).2 Both forms of knowledge are needed to serve as an L2 teacher educator charged with preparing pronunciation teachers. Further, both forms of knowledge are also needed to teach the pronunciation of English in L2 classrooms.
Pedagogical content knowledge is a label borrowed from general education disciplines such as the teaching of history, math, and science. Simply put, pedagogical content knowledge is knowing how to accomplish effective acts of teaching in classroom settings. As related to teaching the pronunciation of English, we may define pedagogical content knowledge as knowing how to provide learning opportunities for non-native English speakers (NNESs) to use the knowledge about phonetics and phonology they have been studying about in their pronunciation of English. Similarly, as related to the preparation of teachers, we may define a teacher educator’s pedagogical content knowledge as knowing how to provide learning opportunities for prospective pronunciation teachers (PPTs) to apply their knowledge about phonetics and phonology when teaching the pronunciation of English.
The applied linguistics literature on L2 teacher development (e.g. Baker, 2014; Bartels, 2005; Johnson & Golombek, 2016) offers an essential lesson for those interested in preparing pronunciation teachers. That is, for someone to be able to teach the pronunciation of English well, knowledge about phonetics and phonology is not enough. Along with it, PPTs also need to develop pronunciation-specific pedagogical content knowledge. To support them, a teacher educator’s role is to devise strategies for assisting teachers to develop knowledge about how to teach the pronunciation of English as either a second, foreign or international lingua franca. It is also worth acknowledging that along with knowledge about phonetics and phonology and pedagogical content knowledge, there is a third, relevant domain of teacher knowledge that entails teacher familiarity with available empirical research to support pronunciation teaching.
