Phonology Of English As An International Language: New Models

Description: This book advocates a new approach to pronunciation teaching, in which the goal is mutual intelligibility among non-native speakers, rather than imitating native speakers. It will be of interest to all teachers of English as an International Language, especially Business English. It proposes a basic core of phonological teaching, with controversial suggestions for what should be included.


Contents: Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The background: Changing patterns in the use of English; The historical shift; Changing ownership; changing terminology; Appropriate pedagogy for an international language; The EIL phonological problem: where do we go next?; 2. The variation problem 1: Inter-speaker variation; Inter-speaker variation; Inter-speaker segmental variation and its effects; Inter-speaker suprasegmental variation and its effects; 3. The variation problem 2: Intra-speaker variation; L1 and IL intra-speaker variation: a distinction; Phonological intra-speaker variation and its effects on interlanguage talk; 4. Intelligibility in interlanguage talk; What do we mean by intelligibility?; Defining intelligibility in interlanguage talk; Bottom-up and top-down processing; The role of phonology in ILT: miscommunication in the ILT data; Intelligibility and the spread of English; Conclusion; 5. The role of transfer in determining the phonological core; The complex process of L1 phonological transfer; Conclusions: transfer, intelligibility, and teachability; 6. Pedagogic priorities 1: Identifying the phonological core; Establishing the Lingua Franca Core; The origin of the Lingua Franca Core; Features of the Lingua Franca Core; Redefining phonological error and correctness for EIL; 7. Pedagogic priorities 2: Negotiating intelligibility in the ELT classroom; Accommodation theory and intra-speaker variation in ILT; Communicative efficiency and interlanguage; Accommodation and IL repertoire; Accommodating classrooms; 8. Proposals for pronunciation teaching for EIL; An overhaul of pronunciation teaching in English language teacher education; An overhaul of pronunciation testing; Radical improvement in the status of 'NNS' EIL pronunciation teachers; Pronunciation learning for 'native speakers' of English ; Afterword: The future of the phonology of EIL; Bibliography; Index


Winner, the Duke of Edinburgh Award