As it has been already mentioned in the introduction, one of the major steps for

ward in teaching pronunciation is a shift from putting an emphasis on segmentals

to putting an emphasis on suprasegmentals. There is no clear demarcation line a
mong words in the spoken language, so, when teaching pronunciation to ESL studen
ts, teachers should make them aware of this and should draw their attention to s
uprasegmental phonological features, such as: intonation, sound changes, etc.
When speaking about teaching pronunciation
Firstly, when speaking about the role of suprasegmental phonological features on
the general discourse performance / participation, it is worth noting that some
new research has shown that the role of intonation in discourse is not simply t
hat of providing information about whether a sentence is intoregotive, declarati
ve, etc. Namely, the research has shown that the role of intonation moves beyond
this level and is largely used by speakers to indicate the onset of a topic, th
e turn-taking in the act of communication as well as the end of a topic. Besides
these, intonation can also serve as a means of establishing social relations a
nd establishing social roles among interlocutors. It can also serve the purpose
of giving information on our assumptions and interests, so that we, for example,
can employ fall-rise intonation to signal that we assume that a piece of inform
ation is a part of the common ground, a part of shared knowledge between the int
erlocutors. For example, it has been recognised that the intonation itself can c
arry a lot of information. Think, for example about a declarative with a rise-fa
ll intonation, in which there is the 'but' implication
When it comes to sound changes, it is equally important to enable students to re
cognise them as it is to produce them and use them in spontaneuos speech. It is
also important to teach the students on different contexts in which these sound
changes can be used. Depending on the formality level of the context, we may emp
loy these sound changes to a higher or a lower degree. For example, elision pres
ent in utterances such as: 'Would you like a cup of tea?' is predominantly used
in contexts with lower levels of formality, or in colloquial speech. However, in
formal environments, it is preferable to avoid sound changes of this type.
However, the other importnat level we should focus on in teaching pronunciation
is the so-called segmental level. Although this level has ben focused on in earl
ier times in teaching pronunciation, recently there was a shift in attention fro
m this level to the suprasegmental level. However, this level should not be done
away with so easily, for mistakes on the segmental level can disrupt communicat
ion and lead to unintelligibility. Just take into account the example of 'ship'
vs. 'sheep'. Mistaking one vowel for the other make lead to a breakdown in commu
nication. On the other hand, using the velar /h/ sound instead of the uvular /h/
sound, may sound strage, but it wil not affect intelligibility.
Socio psychological
Teaching pronunciation and success in improving pronunciation may depend on soci
al or psychological conditions.
Social conditions that may influence pronunciation teaching and improving are de
termined by the goals and purposes for learning a foreign language. When it come
s to goals it is important for both students and teachers to become aware of the
fact that perfect native like pronunciation is unattainable, if not the imminen
t failure in achieving this goal may lead to frustrations and disappointment. Th
erefore, in accordance with the contemporary theory of communicative language te
aching, the goal of pronunciation teaching should be intelligibilty rather than
accuracy. This is especially important because the majority of English speakers
in the world are not native speakers and because English is used as Lingua Franc
a.

Still, many stuents want to achieve this native-like pronunciation, althought ht

eir teachers mostly agree that what really matters in speaking of a foreign lang
uage is intelligibility and the general ability of communicating the desired mea
ning. However, this wouldn't say that every student should speak a version of th
e English language of their own: many of them still suggest that being exposed t
o native speakers' English is important in teaching English, for this particular
pronunciation can be used as a kind of a reference in classroom. This should ai
d or guide the pronunciation of students in such a way that situations in which
two L2 English speakers would not understand each other would be avoided.
ESL or EFL users and their performance in English can be classified along a cont
inuum, ranging from complete unintelligibility to a nearly native-like pronuncia
tion.
In order to move towards the latter extreme on the continuum, the learner should
increase his or her self-cofidence in their production of English. The learners
position along this continuum is determinded by a pre-set goal which, according
to certain systematisations, can belong to one of the following four categories
: functional intelligibility (being reasonably intelligible), functional communi
cability (being able to communicate relatively confidently in English), increase
d self-confidence (being confident in one's near-native pronunciation) and speec
h monitoring abilities (being able to correct oneself).
Learners' reasons for learning a second language and the uses they plan to put t
he language to can have an effect on how native-like they may want or need to so
und. Here, we can also take into account the circle (inner, outer or expanding)
in which the speaker is or intends to use the language. Generally speaking, the
closer the user is to the inner circle, the speaker may want to put greater atte
ntion on achieving native-like performance. In the expanding circle, where we wo
uld need to employ the English International Language, greater attention should
be paid to listening than speaking, while having a native like pronunciation in
both the mind and the classroom as a kind of a reference.
In practice, the most prominent feature of pronunciation teaching are techniques
and materials used to achieve that. So far, amny materials concerning pronuncia
tion have dealt with repetition drills, where individual words or phrases in the
best case are the language chunks that got repeated in teaching/learning pronun
ciation. Furthermore, the students' only exposure to the language has been focus
ed on listening to the audio materials of native speakers. In contemporary pract
ice, however the attention slowly focuses on the suprasegmental levels, with rep
etition dills of entire sentences and even rehearsal practice with entire paragr
aphs. Furthermore, greater attention is being paid to listening practice with no
n-native speakers, where the students learn how to discriminate between differen
t non-native English varieties.
Modern advances in technology can also aid the process of learning/teaching pron
unciation. what they offer to students are highly individualised approaches to l
earning pronunciation, where the students can define their own goals and aims wi
th learning the language prior to the enrollment in the electronic/online course
. The advantage of this approach is that everybody can work in their own time, p
erforming as many repetitions as they feel is necessary, while the program can f
unction to aid the monitor function in practicing speaking. (Rosetta Stone) Stud
ents can also record themselves for further reference or tracking their pogress.
The relationshp between orthography and pronunciation can also be used to aid th
e process of learning by either pointing out the realationships between L2 graph
emes and their pronunciation, or by drawin paralels between L1 and L2 pronunciat
ion. However, comparing the L1 and L2 spelling patterns should be dealt with car
efully, for it can also prove to be a hindrance in acquiring the pronunciation.
The teacher's role is also one of the important factors in teaching pronunciatio

n, at least according to some research. The teacher's ole should be more that of
a coach in that he shoul serve as the model for pronunciation, encourage his or
her students, point out their errors and adjust to the students' needs. This is
an approach that ha been covered in the Communicative Language Teaching, where
the majority of communication in the classroom is among the students and the tea
cher is there to give instructions and aid the expression/understanding of his o
r her students. This drastically increases the student speaking time, offering t
hem more practice and more spoken material to focus on, either through observati
on or through production.

We've been dealing with pronunciation for some time now, but...