Jackie Moreira

Varieties of English

There are considerable difference even between countries where english is the first language.
We can distinguish between the pronunciation of 'British English', 'American English', 'Australian
English', 'South African English', and so on. There are also differences in how vowels and consonants
are pronounced, how words are stressed, and in intonation.
In the second audio, we can listen standard British English (Br) and American English (US)
pronunciation. For example: CAR: In Br, lrl is pronounced only when it is followed by a vowel, while
in US it is also pronounced before consonants and at the end of a word. Some words are stressed
differently in Br and US, including a'ddress (Br) and 'address (US). We can also affirm that speakers of
US use a 'high rising' tone for statements where most speakers of Br would use a falling tone.
In the third audio, we ratify that within Britain and the US there are also many regional accents. The
first person in the audio is a speaker of 'BBC English' and then a speaker from the city of Birmingham
in England.
In the fifth audio, there is a text read aloud first by a British English speaker and then an American
English speaker.
In the sixth audio, there are people talking about what they enjoy doing in their spare time. They are
from northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

English as an international language

Many countries such as Brazil, China, russia, etc. have recognised the importance of English as an
international language of communication, and encouraged its teaching in schools. In each country, the
English spoken is influenced by other languages widely used there, and each variety is different in
features of its grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
The widespread use of English as an international language means that much of the interaction in
English that now goes on around the world is between speakers who don't have English as a first
language. For example when politicians meet to discuss a policies.
There is an enormous variety of accents of English in addition to those of 'British English', 'American
English', 'Australian English' and so on. Consequently, it is useful to 'model' your pronunciation on one
variety - but also recognise that this is just one of many equally acceptable varieties.

Native speaker targets

The target for any L2 leamer of English should be a native speaker variety and, in the case of British
English, this was assumed to be General British (GB).
For those leamers who have much contact with native speakers this may continue to be the target. But
GB is not the only native speaker variety which may be set up as a model. Eventually the selection of
other forms may be made for geographical or social reasons. GB remains the principal option for those
aiming at a British pronunciation.
Regional GBs, are versions of GB which have incorporated some socially acceptable characteristics of
a regional accent.
There are users of English who use it as a L2or lingua franca within their own country and who may
only have limited meetings with L1 speakers; such learners may wish to aim at a version of
AMALGAM ENGLISH, based on an amalgam of native speaker Englishes, together with some local
features arising from a local L1.
There are also those speakers of INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH who use it as a lingua franca on a more
international basis and need a minimum standard for occasional communication.
Sometimes a type of Amalgam English may often be a more realistic target and at least a hybrid
between American and British varieties.
If the teacher or leamer sets GB as a target he is aiming at a level of attainment in production which is
equivalent to that of a native GB speaker and a level of competence in listening which allows him to
understand without difficulty variation within GB.

The Pronunciation Component in Teaching English to Speakers

of Other Languages.

This paper reviews the nature of changing patterns in pronunciation teaching over the last 25 years. It
then describes in detail six instructional features of a multidimensional teaching process: a dual-focus
communicative program philosophy, learner goals, instructional objectives, the role of the learner, the
role of the teacher, and a framework of three instructional practice modes.
 Changing perspectives on language and language learning

As perspectives on language learning and language teaching have changed, there has been a gradual
shift from an emphasis on teaching and a teaching-centered classroom to an emphasis on learning and a
learning-centered classroom, with special attention to the individual learner as well as the group of
learners. At the same time, there has been a shift from a narrow focus on linguistic competencies to a
broader focus on communicative competencies, within which linguistic competencies remain an
essential component although only one of several critical competencies.

The following significant changes in theoretical paradigms - in learning models, in linguistic models,
in instructional models - inform much of the state of the art work in the field today.

1- From a language learning perspective of outside-in, to one of inside-out; that is, a changed concept
of language acquisition that views the learner as the active prime mover in the learning process
(Corder, 1967), and an emerging paradigm shift in which learners are seen as active creators, not as
passive recipients, in a process which is cognitively driven.
2- Following from this altered conceptualization of the learning process, a movement from a focus on
the group, to an increasing focus on individual learner differences and individual learning styles and
strategies.
3- From a focus on language as simply a formal system, to a focus on language as both a formal system
and a functional system, one that exists to satisfy the communicative needs of its users (Halliday)
4- From linguistic preoccupation with sentence-level grammar to widening interest in semantics,
pragmatics, discourse, and speech act theory (Austin)
5- From an instructional focus on linguistic form and correct usage to one on function and
communicatively appropriate use (Widdowson)
6- From an orientation of linguistic competence to one of communicative competence (Hymes)
7- From a global competence concept to detailed competency specifications and the introduction of an
especially useful model that brings together a number of viewpoints in one linguistically oriented and
pedagogically useful framework: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse
competence, and strategic competence (Canale & Swain)
These developments and others have led to a wide variety of changes in virtually all aspects of
ESL including the area of pronunciation teaching.

Pronunciation teaching past and present

Pronunciation was viewed as an important component of English language teaching curricula in both
the audiolingual methodology developed in the U.S. and the British system of situational language
teaching. Along with correct grammar, accuracy of pronunciation was a high-priority goal in both
systems.
The pronunciation class was one that gave primary attention to phonemes and their meaningful
contrasts, environmental allophonic variations, and combinatory phonotactic rules, along with
structurally based attention to stress, rhythm, and intonation.

With today’s renewed professional commitment to empowering students to become effective, fully
participating members of the English-speaking community in which they communicate, it is clear that
there is a persistent, if small, groundswell of movement to write pronunciation back into the
instructional equation but with a new look and a basic premise: Intelligible pronunciation is an essential
component of communicative competence.

As Beebe observed, in this era of emphasis on meaningful communication, it is important for ESL
professionals to take note of the fact that “pronunciation - like grammar, syntax, and discourse
organization - communicates the very act of pronouncing, not just the words we transmit, are an
essential part of what we communicate about ourselves as people”. She reported that NSs often label
NNS pronunciation errors derisively, as sounding comical, cute, incompetent, not serious, childish, etc.

Major influences on changing patterns of pronunciation teaching

It is imperative that students’ educational, occupational, and personal/social language needs, including
reasonably intelligible pronunciation, be served with instruction that will give them communicative
empowerment effective language use that will help them not just to survive, but to succeed.
With an increasing focus on communication, has come a growing premium on oral comprehensibility,
making it of critical importance to provide instruction that enables students to become, not “perfect
pronouncers” of English, but intelligible, communicative, confident users of spoken English for
whatever purposes they need.

Which pronunciation norms and models for English as an

International Language?
The recent growth in the use of English as an International Language (EIL) has led to changes in
learners’ pronunciation needs and goals.
Kachru described six fallacies about ‘the users and uses of English across cultures’. According to his
sixth fallacy, ‘the diversity and variation in English are indicators of linguistic decay; restriction of the
decay is the responsibility of native scholars and of ESL programs’. This fallacy, argued Kachru, ‘has
resulted in the position that ‘deviation’ at any level from the native norm is ‘an error’.
It is no longer regard English as being taught mainly for communication with its native speakers, or the
target of pronunciation teaching as a native-like accent.
There is an idea that “local non-native norms are wholly inappropriate, and that every pronunciation
which differs from a native variety is deviant”, but specific and clear pronunciation objectives for
teaching EIL are scarce.

There are two obstacles that prevent putting this conceptual progress into practice:

*The first is the difficulty in resolving the basic conflict between the practical need to harmonize
pronunciation among L2 varieties of English sufficiently to preserve international intelligibility.
*The second is the social and psychological need to respect the norms of the largest group of users of
English (non-natives).

Two main approaches to the conflict have emerged:

– The first is an attempt to establish some sort of simplified, neutral, universal pronunciation
variety, intelligible and acceptable to both native and non-native users of English
– The second approach to solving the conflicts is to provide multiple models, both native and
non-native, and the teaching of generalized norms according to individual learner need and
choice (not to standard British or American accent)
Intelligibility in EIL vs EFL contexts
The materials on pronunciation tend to focus exclusively on intelligibility for the native rather than the
non-native receiver. This research focus on the native receiver provides important insights into the way
native speakers of English structure and decode spoken messages via the suprasegmental system
(stress, rhythm and intonation).
It is true that the suprasegmentals contribute far more than the segmentals (sounds) to intelligibility for
the native receiver, complicating factors in interlanguage talk make it necessary to maintain a balance
between the segmentals and suprasegmentals in teaching where the learner’s goal is to be effective in
EIL rather than in EFL.

A compromise solution

To promote intelligibility through teaching EIL, while at the same time allowing speakers the freedom
to express themselves through their own pronunciation norms, we should concentrate the productive
focus of pronunciation teaching on the three areas that appear to have the greatest influence on
intelligibility in EIL: a) Certain segmental b) Nuclear stress c) The articulatory setting.

a) The crucial difference between a non-native speaker of English and a native speaker as regards
segmentals, is that the non-native may deviate from native models in precisely those sounds that are
considered to be ‘core’ sounds of English.
b) Accurate use of nuclear stress is essential in EIL because learners seem to acquire the native English
system relatively quickly for receptive purposes, but do not acquire it productively until considerably
later. This applies particularly to contrastive stress, through which English typically highlights ‘extra’
meanings by moving the nucleus from the last content word to another word in the group.
c) Mastery in this area will both facilitate the production of core sounds and allow the speaker to
manipulate these sounds to produce nuclear stress.

Areas open to variation

The three phonological areas discussed above have the advantage of being not only teachable but also
learnable: systematic, and not riddled with complicated exceptions and fine distinctions, or dependent
on individual learners and contexts. EIL should be able to embrace non-native local norms and/or
disregard native norms with no threat to intelligibility for the (non-native) receiver in at least the
following areas:

*Word stress
The rules are highly complex, containing manifold exceptions and differences among L1 varieties and
according to syntactic context.

*Features of connected speech

These include elision, assimilation, linking, and weak forms. The connected speech suggestion that
learners can safely abandon weak forms will no doubt prove controversial. It is possible to highlight
some syllables without necessarily reducing others, and that some native varieties do precisely this,
along with the vast majority of fluent bilingual speakers.

*Rhythm
While English is relatively stress-timed, with stresses occurring on important syllables in the speech
stream at roughly equal intervals, most of the world’s languages tend towards varying degrees of
syllable-timing.

The difference between model and norm.

According to Dalton and Seidlhofer ‘if we treat RP and/or General American as a norm, we connect
them strongly with ideas of correctness. The norm is invariable and has to be imitated independently of
any considerations of language use.
On the other hand, ‘if we treat RP and/or General American as a model, we use them as points of
reference and models for guidance. We decide to approximate to them more or less according to the
demands of a specific situation’.

L2 sociolinguistic variation.
Phonological variation, whether L1 or L2, can be both inter- and intra speaker.
Before teachers are likely to promote L2 inter-speaker variation in the classroom, they will need to
experience a change of attitude towards it and, in turn, be equipped with the means of changing their
students’ attitudes. Furthermore inter-speaker variation implies the inclusion of extensive exposure to
different L2 varieties of English.
Intra-speaker variation in an EIL context refers to the fact that nonnative speakers may be motivated to
accommodate their non-native receivers when their own desire to be understood is especially strong.
Clearly, then, both types of variation can be embraced more easily in multilingual than in monolingual
classrooms, which involve high exposure to a single non-native variety and lack any genuine
communicative need to use English or improve pronunciation for intelligibility.

In ESL Settings
1. Adult and teenage refugees in vocational and language training programs.
2. Immigrant residents who have been in an English-speaking country for 5 to 15 years.
3. A growing population of nonnative speakers of English in technology, business, industry, and
the professions in Englishspeaking countries.
4. College and university faculty members and research scholars in virtually every field of higher
education.
5. Graduate and undergraduate students in higher education in English-speaking countries.

In EFL Settings
1- International business personnel, scientists, technologists, and other professionals whose careers
demand the use of both effective written and spoken English as a lingua franca.
2- College and university professors and academic research scholars in many disciplines in higher
education.
3- Students who ultimately wish to enter English-speaking colleges and universities to pursue
undergraduate and/or graduate degrees.

What are reasonable and desirable goals?

Goal 1: Functional intelligibility.
Goal 2: Functional communicability.
Goal 3: Increase self confidence.
Goal 4: Speech monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom.

Learner Self-Involvement
Pronunciation/speech study is most profitable when students are actively involved in their own
learning.
Teachers and materials can help students become involved in the following four areas:
1. Recognition of self-responsibility. Learners can be guided toward taking responsibility for their
own work not just by exhorting them, but by providing ways and means.
2. Development of self-monitoring skills. Self-monitoring can begin as gentle consciousness-
raising with the goal of helping students develop speech awareness, self-observation skills, and
a positive attitude toward them.
3. Development of speech modification skills. Negative feelings about correction as a bad thing, a
punishment, need to be eliminated.
4. Recognition of self-accomplishment. Improvement is a gradual process with much variability,
neither an overnight phenomenon, nor an overall development, and it may be difficult for
learners to perceive changes in speech patterns.

A Comfortable, Supportive Classroom Atmosphere

In pronunciation/speech work, perhaps more than any other part of language study, a comfortable
classroom atmosphere is essential. Classroom interactions need to be enjoyable and supportive with a
focus on strengths as well as weaknesses.

Learner Awarenesses and Attitudes

1. Speech awareness.
2. Self-awareness of features of speech production and speech performance.
3. Self-observation skills and a positive attitude toward self-monitoring processes.
4. Speech-modification skills (self-’’correction”) and the elimination of negative feelings that
correction is a punitive thing.
5. Awareness of the learner role as one of a “speech performer”, and the teacher role as one of
assisting students as a “speech coach’ who gives suggestions and cues for speech modification,
support, encouragement, and constructive feedback.
6. A sense of personal responsibility for one’s own learning.
7. A feeling of pride in one’s own accomplishments.
8. Building a personal repertoire of speech monitoring and modification skills in order to continue
to improve speaking effectiveness in English when the formal instructional program is finished.
Teacher-as-Coach Responsibilities
1. Conducting pronunciation/speech diagnostic analyses, and choosing and prioritizing those
features that will make the most noticeable impact on modifying the speech of each learner
toward increased intelligibility.
2. Helping students set both long-range and short-term goals.
3. Designing program scope and sequence for an entire group of learners; designing personalized
programming for each individual learner in the group.
4. Developing a variety of instructional formats, modes, and modules. Overall, providing genuine
speech task activities for practice situated in real contexts and carefully chosen simulated
contexts.
5. Planning out-of-class field-trip assignments in pairs or small groups for real-world
extemporaneous speaking practice, with panel discussions as follow-up.
6. Structuring in-class speaking (and listening) activities with invited NS and NNS guests
participating.
7. Providing models, cues, and suggestions for modifications of elements in the speech patterning
for each student.
8. Monitoring learners’ speech production and speech performance at all times, and assessing
pattern changes, as an ongoing part of the program.
9. Encouraging student speech awareness and realistic self-monitoring.
10. Always supporting each learner in his or her efforts, be they wildly successful or not so
successful.

To conclude...
Over the years, the patterns in teaching pronunciation have changed and some writers have done a lot
of work on this.
As some experts said “English is not a single variety, it is a conglomeration of different varieties of
dialetcs”. These different varieties of english are different in the sense that there is different vocabulary,
grammar and pronunciation, also there are different strategies of discourse. Therefore, the more you
realize that there are variations, the better you will learn a variety of English as a means of
communication. Also we must remember that it is essential to know that there are alternative ways of
expression.
We could say that the media has an extraordinary influece on the way in which we hear accent for the
first time, pick them up, repeat them, copy them because the media gives us the stereotype of how
people talk in different places.
Surely, the teaching situation has become more complex by the arrival of other forms of regional
English from around the world: British English, American English, Canadian English, New Zeland
English, South African English, Australian English and so on. There is no one “correct” pronunciation
of English, but is certainly known that students ought to be advised that the variations exist as well as
tell them what´s happening with English as a global language.
As far as I am concerned and after reading the materials, I can ffirm that teachers play a crucial role in
students´ education they must help them to learn by imparting knowledge and by setting up a situation
in which students can learn effectively, always taking into account the learners needs, goals, and
context. .

REFERENCES

*Cruttenden (Part IV, Section 13).

*Roach (4th Edition, Chapter 20).
*Videos from VLC.
*Jenkins, J. “Which pronunciation norms and models for English as an International language”.
*Morley, J. "The Pronunciation Component in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages".