Research into pronunciation has often disregarded its potential to inform pedagogy. This is due partly to the historical development of pronunciation teaching and research, but its effect is that there is often a mismatch between research and teaching. This paper looks at four areas in which the (mis)match is imperfect but in which a greater…

Both native and nonnative language teachers often find pronunciation a difficult skill to teach because of inadequate training or uncertainty about the effectiveness of instruction. But nonnative language teachers may also see themselves as inadequate models for pronunciation, leading to increased uncertainty about whether they should teach…

Pronunciation features are not equal in how they affect listeners' ability to understand. Some are low value, while others are high value. This study explores whether contrastive stress is high value. Previous research has shown that identification of contrastive stress is learnable (Pennington & Ellis, 2000), and that explicit teaching about…

Discusses the use of focus, or intonational prominence, to create meaning for learners of English. Presents an alternative approach to predicting focus that appeals to functional and meaning regularities that do not depend on extensive written input and are more easily adaptable to normal conversation. (Author/VWL)

Two language teachers offer guidance to help other English-as-a-Second-/Foreign-Language educators incorporate pronunciation activities into oral communication courses as well as other instructional settings. (Author/VWL)

The history of pronunciation in English language teaching is a study in extremes. Some approaches to teaching, such as the "reformed method" and "audiolingualism", elevated pronunciation to a pinnacle of importance, while other approaches, such as the "cognitive movement" and early "communicative language teaching," mostly ignored pronunciation.…