EFL LEARNING
IMPORTANT FACTORS
Concern for good pronunciation: how "bad" a learner's pronunciation is and it can result in difficulty, irritation and misunderstunding for the listener.
Motivation: "achievement motivation" is the desire to, for example, pronounce as better as possible. So learners need to be aware of their mistakes and take care of them.
Attitude and Identity: "sense of identity" and "group affiliation"
Learners with strong sense of identity linked to the place of birth, may work againt any change in their ways of speaking
People tend to imitate and adopt ways of speaking to show positive and friendly feelings.
"Integrative motivation" the learner's willing to be integrated into the new speech community
Personal commitement to a community and the sense of belonging to the "new" one.
Phonetic ability: each learner has "the basic equipment" but some "better ear"
The teacher has to offer a variety of tasks in order to fulfill the learner's needs
Amount of exposure: if the learner is surrounded by the language (if he lives in an English speaking country) it is a huge advantage
Bilingual and multilingual situations (at work, studies) can be an advantage for those learners who do not live in an English-speaking environment.
Age factor: The common belief is that children acquire easily native-speaking accent, rather than adults.
Ability, motivation, attitude and opportunity
Catherine E. Snow and Marian Hoefnagel-Hohle: by a research of Dutch students: the older students (17, 21 ans 31 years old) got the highest scores; the youngest (5 and 6 years old) got the lowest scores.
In the long term (after a year) children begun to excel.
In the sort term, older learners were better than younger learners.
Susan Oyama: by a research of 60 male Italian learners she demostrated that the younger a person was when he started to learn English, the more native-like his accent is.
The native language: learner's native language is reflected on some features of his/her spoken English.
There are "more favoured" and "less favoured" languages
Combination of sounds: rhythm and intonation
LEARNER'S ROLE
Comfortably intelligible
Pronunciation goals: native-like speaking is consider innapropriate for most learners
But depending on the future occupation that learner will need a navite accent: English teacher, telephone operator,etc.
Responsability: effort; monitor their mispronunciation
TEACHER'S ROLE
Activity selection: it must be helpful and useful considering what type of exercise the learner needs to do and how (bearing in mind the learner's learning style), or what skill he/she needs to improve
Assessing progress: if students receive information about their progress, they will maintain their motivation
Establishing priorities: by a plan of action: to focus on a certain skill, to improve their pronunciation and to realize the importance of speak and pronounce accurately
Providing feedback and pointing out what is going on: The teacher provides the learners with information or helps with their mispronunciation; so they are aware of their difficulties, pay attention and improve.
Word stress is really important to bear in mind because it can change the "message"
Helping learners produce sounds: by the imitation of new sounds
Helping learners perceive sounds: pointing out misperceptions and differences
