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1、Pronunciation:The“Cinderella”ofLanguageTeachingIntroductionIndisputably,teachingpronunciationisoneofthemostcomplicatedyetsignificantaspectsofEFL/ESLteaching.Thatiswhyithasbeenlookeduponasthe“Cinderella”oflanguageteaching(Kelly,1969;Dalton,1997).Whatshouldbedrawntoourattentioni
2、sthat,intheprocessofcommunication,pronunciation(ofbothsegmentalandsuprasegmental(prosodic)elements)isofparamountimportance,sincesuccessfulcommunicationcannottakeplacewithoutcorrectpronunciation(Celce-Murcia,Brinton&Goodwin,1996)—poorlypronouncedsegmentsandsuprasegmentsmayhavet
3、heresultofdisorientingthelistenerandinhibitingcomprehension.Ofcourse,thenotionof“correctness”withregardtopronunciationisnottantamounttoadherenceto“nativespeaker”normsorReceivedPronunciation(RP)rules.Atanyrate,pronunciationhasanimportantsocialvalue(Gelvanovsky,2002),whichmeanst
4、hatitshouldberelatedtoprestige.TherehavebeennumerousstudiesinvolvingspeakersofvariousEnglishaccentsinordertofindoutwhatvaluesaregenerallyassociatedwithReceivedPronunciation.Accordingtothefindings,thosevalueswerethesameasthevaluesusuallyperceivedasindispensableforsocio-economic
5、success:intelligence,professionalcompetence,persuasiveness,diligence,socialprivilege,andsoon(Hudson,1980;Dalton&Seidlhofer,1994).Ispronunciationteachable?Therearesomeresearchers(Suter,1976;PurcellandSuter,1980,etal.)whohavecastdoubtontheimportanceofpronunciationinEFLteaching.A
6、ccordingtothem,pronunciationpracticeinclasshaslittle,ifany,effectonlearners’pronunciationskills.Inotherwords,‘theattainmentofaccuratepronunciationinasecondlanguageisamattersubstantiallybeyondthecontrolofeducators’.Pennington(1989),though,believedthatteacherswithformaltrainingi
7、npronunciationandteachingsuprasegmentalscanmakeadifference.Betweentheseopposingviews,Stern(1992:112)says:‘Thereisnoconvincingempiricalevidencethatcouldhelpussortoutthevariouspositionsonthemeritsofpronunciationtraining’.Here,itmightbehelpfultothinkofvariousaspectsofpronunciatio
8、nalongateachability-learnabilityscale.Forexample,theattitudin
