Four principles for accent-friendly pronunciation teaching

An IATEFL monthly webinar presented by Mark Hancock

English is an international language, but for pronunciation we are often given only national choices – US or UK. Worse still, only the ‘standard’ accents of these countries are seen as acceptable. This limitation is not necessary - in global communication, people with a wide variety of accents, both native and non-native, are able to understand and make themselves understood perfectly well. Intelligibility does not depend on having a standard accent.

In this presentation, I will suggest that it is possible to teach pronunciation in a way which is more flexible and accepting of different accents. The presentation will be organised around four principles for accent-friendly pronunciation teaching:

• ‘Effective’ beats ‘correct’
• If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it
• Make the difference you need
• Speak locally, hear globally

I will explain each of these principles in turn, and then go on to give simple and practical suggestions for putting them into practice in your classroom.

PRESENTER: Mark Hancock

Mark Hancock is a well-known ELT author, teacher and trainer with over 35 years experience in the field. He has taught in Sudan, Turkey, Brazil, Spain and the UK. His books include Pronunciation Games, English Pronunciation in Use, Mark Hancock’s 50 Tips for Teaching Pronunciation (all CUP) and the self-published PronPack series. He works as a teacher trainer online at pron4teachers.com and on the MA TESOL programme at the University of Chester. In his free time, Mark is keen on creating art and music and walking in the mountains.

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