University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing
Abstract
Foreign language teachers are expected to have mastery of the phonological system of the target language. Since they are often (mis)judged on the basis of their pronunciation, the perceived pronunciation difficulties and strategies of teacher candidates deserve an in-depth exploration prior to practicum. With the aims of identifying (i) the pronunciation problems preservice teachers experience, (ii) the strategies they use to overcome these difficulties and (iii) whether having an extra year of language studies before starting undergraduate courses contributes to their perceived beliefs about pronunciation skills, data from forty-two teacher candidates will be reported. The participants responded to a questionnaire along with some open-ended questions about pronunciation problems and strategies in an EFL setting in Turkey (adapted from Derwing & Rossiter, 2002). The results indicated that difficulties in speaking a foreign language arouse from a lack of grammatical, lexical and phonological knowledge of that language. Paraphrasing, repeating, slowing the speech rate and self-check through online resources were the most frequently utilized strategies. The role of doing an extra year of language studies before starting undergraduate courses was not a significant factor determining the pre-service students' beliefs. The study offers implications for policy makers and curriculum developers in higher education institutions.
DOI
https://www.doi.org/10.5038/9781955833042
Recommended Citation
Geckin, V. (2021). What’s wrong with my pronunciation? Pronunciation difficulties experienced and strategies employed by pre-service foreign language teachers in Turkey. In W. B. James, C. Cobanoglu, & M. Cavusoglu (Eds.), Advances in global education and research (Vol. 4, pp. 1–13). USF M3 Publishing. https://www.doi.org/10.5038/9781955833042
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