Non-native English Speaker Instructors’ Beliefs and Self-reported Practices in Pronunciation Teaching

Abstract

Despite the fact that teachers and instructors try to focus on four main skills and some other language components while teaching the target language, pronunciation is frequently neglected. Nonetheless, research shows that pronunciation is crucial for learning a language. Moreover, since teachers' views in classrooms determine the activities, language skills, and components that will be taught and focused on, paying close attention to the beliefs of teachers and instructors is necessary. Therefore, this study investigates the beliefs and self-reported practices of non-native English-speaking instructors in pronunciation teaching. In the present study, the participants were 72 volunteer non-native speaker instructors in a state university in Turkey and a five-point Likert Scale questionnaire was utilized to collect the required data. The results showed that the majority of instructors believe that pronunciation is important and it should be taught by integrating into speaking courses rather than having it as a separate course. In addition to that, the instructors were found that they focus on the sounds that their students have difficulty with. When the instructors’ opinions on the effects of being a non-native speaker are considered, it was discovered that they do not view their non-native status as a barrier to their pronunciation.

Keywords

• non-native speakers
• teaching pronunciation
• teacher beliefs
• teacher practices

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