This article argues that British Received Pronunciation (RP) is inconsistently defined, arbitrary, and anachronistic, and that it should be replaced as an instructional concept by British Pronunciation (BP), which would be based on an actual and adequate descriptive phonetics, called here "Realphonetik." Contains 77 references. (MDM)

This article presents a survey of Greek EFL teachers' (N = 421) attitudes regarding their pronunciation beliefs and practices. It touches on two sets of questions. First, it refers to teachers' viewpoints regarding pronunciation-specific issues and the possible links between pronunciation teaching, English as an international language (EIL), and…

Foreign-born instructors are an integral part of the US education system. While universities see them as contributing to internationalization, many students, parents and legislators are concerned about their impact on students' educational achievement. Supported by data collected from students and professors, the author identifies the main…

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a rare disorder characterized by the emergence of a perceived foreign accent following brain damage. The symptomotology, functional bases, and neural substrates of this disorder are still being elucidated. In this case study, acoustic analyses were performed on the speech of a 46-year old monolingual female who…

With economic globalisation making second language (L2) learning inevitable throughout the world, understanding what factors facilitate success is a socioeconomic necessity. This paper examined the role of social factors, those related to ethnic group affiliation (EGA), in the development of L2 proficiency. Although numerous studies have…

Article describes experiment whereby it was established that with verbal-discrimination learning overt pronunciation facilitated a freer recall than covert pronunciation. (Author/MM)

Free paired-associate task performance is aided by pronunciability, and facilitation of performance due to relevant pretraining increases as pronunciability decreases. (MH)

Argues that a knowledge of the physiological and neurophysiological processes underlying speech- sound production and intonation can be useful to the teacher in (1) explaining mistakes in pronunciation and giving advice for overcoming them, and (2) in using technical devices for teaching correct pronunciation. (FWB)

The correct pronunciation of a foreign language cannot be acquired by simple imitation alone. Systematic Exercising of the muscles used in articulation is also necessary. Consequently, learners should be given a basic knowledge of articulatory processes. This knowledge in turn enhances skilled perceptual discrimination of sounds. (Author/FWB)

Two experiments examined the structure of rime and status of the coda as a unit in syllables. Found that children had less difficulty learning a word game which kept the final consonant cluster intact than one which broke it up. The more robust type of coda cluster was as coherent a unit as clusters in the onset position. (EAJ)

Research has indicated that both teachers and elementary school children are likely to have many erroneous ideas about the dictionary and little understanding of how to use it correctly. To establish priority in dictionary skills that a child should master first and best, one staff member from each of four dictionary companies was asked to rate…

This book, a pedagogical rather than a scientific study of the French and English sound systems, is specifically designed for the French-Canadian student of English. Together with its companion volumes, "Teaching English Pronunciation: Exercises, Part 1 and Part 2," and their accompanying phonograph records, the series may be used separately or as…

After a look at the function of the phoneme and the problem of differing systems of phonetic transcription, the causes of a "German accent" in English are examined, with attention to vowels, diphthongs and consonants. Suggestions are given for overcoming wrong pronunciation. (IFS/WGA)

Native English-speaking (NS) listeners evaluated effects of three types of instruction (segmental accuracy; general speaking habits and prosodic factors; and no specific pronunciation instruction) on speech of three groups of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. Sentences were recorded and extemporaneously produced narratives at beginning…