Teaching and
Assessing Pronunciation in an EFL Classroom
Siti Mina Tamah
The traditional method of teaching
pronunciation relies heavily on the bottom-up approaches which typically
involve students repeating models of speech sounds, followed by extensive
practice of the individual speech sounds. In other words, the traditional way
of teaching is characterized by an attempt to build students’ articulatory
competence. Hence the traditional assessment of pronunciation is characterized
by discrete-point tests designed to assess students’ ability to recognize and
articulate isolated sounds. This paper proposes a function-based model for
teaching pronunciation. This is a model of pronunciation instruction in which
one speech sound can be developed to cover seven language functions. A model of
an integrative pronunciation test will also be exemplified. The proposal for
teaching and assessing EFL learners’ pronunciation presented in this paper has
been shown to be beneficial in helping learners acquire the English speech
sounds in a more realistic and authentic manner.
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Tamah, S. M. (2003, November). Teaching and assessing
pronunciation in an EFL classroom. Paper presented at the 38th
RELC International Seminar,
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