1. EFL Teachers’ Subjective Theories about Pronunciation Training (Supported by Internet Sources) Mgr. Juraj Datko Supported by: KEGA 055UKF-4/2016 UKF: UGA V/3/2016

2. Research aim and questions  The aim of the presented study is: (1) to explore EFL teachers’ subjective theories (views, attitudes, perceptions, practices, or suggestions) related to (Internet- supported) pronunciation training.  We formulated two research questions, namely: (RQ1) What are the interviewed EFL teachers’ subjective theories of pronunciation training? (RQ2) What are the interviewed EFL teachers’ subjective theories of Internet-supported pronunciation training?

3. Research methodology Data collection:  Semi-structured interviews were used to reconstruct EFL teachers’ subjective theories.  The interviews were audio-recorded, while the researcher also took notes. Data analysis:  Qualitative content analysis was used to process the transcribed interview data.  The coding framework is based on seven analytic categories and a set of twenty-eight codes.

4. Research sample  11 high school EFL teachers (5 teachers from Dolný Kubín and 6 teachers from Nitra)  various lengths of pedagogical practice (5 - 38 years of teaching experience)

5. Research analysis and results Category I: Teachers’ attitudes towards the importance of pronunciation training in EFL classes CodeNo. of teachersExample I.) Pronunciation training is important in EFL classes. 4 “Pronunciation teaching is very important and unavoidable in EFL classrooms. Teachers should not expect their students to acquire correct pronunciation via exposure to English at home”. II.) Pronunciation training is important in EFL classes, but it is even more important for younger learners starting to learn English. 3 “Pronunciation training is an important element of foreign language teaching and learning, but I would say, that it is even more important for younger learners in the lower levels”. III.) Pronunciation training is important in EFL classes, but students can also benefit from exposure to English outside the classroom. 3 “Pronunciation practice is important to a certain degree in our EFL classrooms, but I have some students, “no big intellectuals”, whose pronunciation has improved through listening to authentic speech in movies and on the Internet”. IV.) Pronunciation training is not important in EFL classes. 1 “It is not important to focus on pronunciation training during English lessons. Learners train their pronunciation implicitly at home”.

6. Category II: The goal of pronunciation training as set by EFL teachers CodeNo. of teachersExample I.) Mutually intelligible pronunciation 6 “Instead of striving after “perfect” pronunciation, the goal of English pronunciation teaching should be easily understandable pronunciation causing no misunderstandings”. II.) Native-like pronunciation5 “The only goal for students of English as a foreign language should be to pronounce as native speakers”.

7. Category III: Topics to focus on in English pronunciation training CodeNo. of teachersExample I.) Intonation9 “Intonation seems to be the most important topic of pronunciation teaching”. II.) Stress8 “I think that suprasegmentals, namely stress, should be highlighted”. III.) Variations of English pronunciation 7 “Students should be exposed to different accents of English, but they should not be taught to imitate them”. IV.) Correct articulation of individual sounds 6 “It is important to teach them how to produce sounds correctly”. V.) Correct pronunciation on the word level 5 “Words must be pronounced correctly, otherwise there will be misunderstandings”. VI.) Strong and weak forms2 “/di:/ and /də/ are one of the first things I focus on in pronunciation teaching”.

8. Category IV: Teachers’ methods of pronunciation training CodeNo. of teachersExamples I.) Drilling8“Pronunciation training is a drill”. II.) Ear training7 “Our students need to be aware of the differences between accents of English, since they often attend exchange programmes or find employment in a multi-cultural environment in foreign countries, where the ability to percept and understand the sound properties of a wider range of both native and non-native English accents is a must”. III.) Reading aloud5The participants mentioned the key word “reading aloud”. IV.) Correction5 “I try to correct students’ pronunciation while reading aloud and during oral presentation in general”.

9. Category V: Use of Internet resources in pronunciation training CodeNo. of teachersExamples I.) I use only textbook-related resources in pronunciation training. 7 “Recent textbooks are so well- equipped that it would be an enormous waste of time to search the Internet for suitable samples of authentic speech and prepare some other web-based activities”. II.) I use both textbook-related and Internet- based resources in pronunciation training. 4 “Besides textbook, I use songs, movie scenes, and documentaries found on the Internet”.

10. Category VI: Teachers’ attitudes towards an Internet-based set of activities aimed at pronunciation training CodeNo. of teachersExamples I.) I would appreciate and use an Internet-based set of activities aimed at pronunciation training. 7 “It would be definitely a great help for teachers, particularly for those who teach beginners, as bad pronunciation habits acquired in the initial phases of foreign language learning are then difficult to root out in the later stages”. II.) I would not appreciate and use an Internet-based set of activities aimed at pronunciation training. 3 “Personally, I would not use it, but for my younger and technically more advanced colleagues, it would surely be a frequently used resource”. III.) I cannot judge.1 “I cannot decide whether I would or would not use such activities during my lessons”.

11. Category VII: Teachers’ suggestions about materials that should be included in a collection of websites suitable for pronunciation training CodeNo. of teachersExamples I.) No suggestions5 These teachers were not able to give us any advice about such materials. II.) Videos4 “Subtitled online videos might present a motivating way how to deal with pronunciation”. III.) Audio samples2 “I would search the Internet for authentic audio material such as dialogues or reports”. IV.) Tongue twisters2“There are lots of tongue twisters on the BBC website”. V.) Nursery rhymes1 “Nursery rhymes, songs, and jazz chants would come in handy for younger pupils”. VI.) Songs1 VII.) Jazz chants1

12. Research conclusion  Ten interviewees agree that pronunciation training is important in EFL classrooms. On the other hand, the remaining one respondent relies on students’ activities beyond the confines of the EFL classroom.  A slight majority (namely six) of our research subjects (N=11) prefers the more realistic goal of mutually intelligible pronunciation. The other five teachers attempt to achieve native-likeness.  We can deduce that a larger group of our research participants appears to be interested preferably in prosodic features, i.e. in the topics that are vital for pronunciation training in communicative approaches to foreign language teaching.  On the other hand, the referred teaching methods suggest that there still does not exist a general consensus about how to address pronunciation communicatively, since our interview respondents mentioned rather traditional methods of instruction, namely drilling and reading aloud. In case of ear training, four of the seven research participants who claimed to employ this method for the purposes of pronunciation teaching use it in relation to sound discrimination and not for perception of prosody.  As for correction of mispronunciation, the recommended learner-led approach tends to be largely ignored among the five research subjects who mentioned this technique of pronunciation training.

13.  It seems that the traditional printed textbooks are dominant over electronic web sources for all of our interviewees. Furthermore, course books represent the only resource for pronunciation work for seven of our teacher interviewees who also admitted to use only didactic materials for this kind of training.  The other four teachers claim to use textbook-related and also web-based materials, namely the online pronunciation sections of BBC and British Council, unspecified authentic audio and video samples, and an online-based school library.  In terms of teachers’ attitudes towards web-based pronunciation activities, a group of seven teacher respondents would appreciate and use such collection of activities in their teaching practice, while a group of three interviewees would not. The remaining one teacher could not judge.  Five of the teacher respondents gave us no advice on what materials to include in such an online-based set of activities. Due to missing data, we can only deduce that their reluctance is perhaps connected with an insufficient theoretical knowledge base for pronunciation teaching. However, the other six interviewees recommend us to search the Internet for videos, audio-samples (e.g. dialogues, reports, etc), tongue twisters, nursery rhymes, songs, and jazz chants.