Clarity runs a rolling program of updates and enhancements to ensure that the content within our programs is always practical, relevant, and up-to-date. We’re just about to release a refreshed version of Study Skills Success, where we integrated new content related to AI and replaced a number of the texts and activities (new topics include reparations for slavery; the impact of covid on routine vaccine uptake; and the potential of blockchain technology).
Next on the list is Clear Pronunciation 1. As part of this process, we have taken the opportunity to re-evaluate the teaching approach behind the program, and in this post I’d like to look at the key roles that different voices play in helping learners improve their pronunciation.
1. Models for production
It has long been recognised (since Abercrombie, 1991) that a realistic goal for learners’ pronunciation is that they should be ‘comfortably intelligible’. As English has become ever more important as a lingua franca, a new term, ‘international intelligibility’, has gained currency. It amounts to the same thing: we want to help students speak a version of English that will enable them to be understood as widely and as easily as possible.
Within the framework of international intelligibility (or the linga franca core, Jenkins, 2000), students need a specific dialect model. It makes sense to choose the one which aligns with their goals or interests, or which is dominant in their place of work or study. In Clear Pronunciation, we provide three models to choose from: Standard British English, General American English, and Standard Australian English. This modular approach also means that additional accents – such as Indian English, New Zealand English or Singaporean English – can be introduced in the future.
2. Role models
So far, so obvious. The first step in any pronunciation program, digital or face-to-face, is to provide a clear and readily understood model for recognition and production. But what if students have their own role models? For example, when I was learning French in the 1980s, my role model was the actor Philippe Noiret. I watched his films repeatedly, noted key utterances, and practised repeating them until I thought I had them just right.
I’m very glad that my French teacher never told me that aspiring to sound like Philippe Noiret was unrealistic, and that I should settle for ‘comfortable intelligibility’; as perhaps they realised, motivation is a jewel to be treasured wherever we find it. So if students do have role models for pronunciation, so much the better – let’s encourage them to find YouTube clips or podcasts they can work with. (It’s so much easier than it was in the 1980s.)
3. Recognising sounds in other dialects
Of course, when we’re teaching pronunciation, production is only half the story; learners need to recognise the sounds they hear before they can produce them. Recognition is also a key element in developing listening skills – if you can’t identify the sounds that make up the word you are listening to, then you won’t be able to understand it.
To address this, Clear Pronunciation 1 includes an activity called ‘Sounds in Action’ in each unit. The input in the ‘Sounds in Action’ activities is highly controlled, focusing on target phonemes, and with written text for learners to follow. This activity helps learners connect pronunciation to practical, real-life contexts. Learners are exposed to a variety of spoken texts (recipes, puzzles, nursery rhymes, short conversations, film reviews etc.) delivered in accents from around the world. These include speakers from countries such as Argentina, Germany, the Philippines, Singapore, and India. Engaging with these diverse voices enables learners to develop awareness of of the variation of pronunciation in different accents, and therefore the listening skills needed to navigate the English they will encounter in an interconnected world. This means that an effective pronunciation program must include access to accents other than the chosen model for production.
4. Accessing different voices online
What if students want to experience a variety of accents ‘in the wild’? The good news is that it has never been easier. Simply open up the wonderful Radio Garden app and you can instantly access English spoken by voices from all over the world. One caveat: it’s not easy to find channels offering any kind of graded listening, so the channels you access will be directed primarily at an L1 audience. Nevertheless, there is significant learning value to be had, provided students set themselves sensible objectives in line with their current language level. At the lowest levels this could be as simple as: ‘I just want to understand one word. Then I’ll repeat it into Google Translate and try to get the correct transcription.’ At higher levels, goals can be more complex. For example, a B2 student might compare pronunciation of similar texts in different dialects by listening to today’s news on different stations (such as SikhNet and Morocco English radio).
It’s early days for the new version of Clear Pronunciation 1, but I suspect that we will continue with the current approach of providing clear, focused input for the recognition and production of each of the 43 phonemes in English. At the same time, there is clearly room to develop learners’ skills in accessing the wealth of material online in a variety of effective ways.
