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The teaching of pronunciation at secondary level (upper secondary) : teachers' perspectives
Author
Puja, Dada
Supervisor
Poedjosoedarmo, Gloria
Abstract
English has an important role in Singapore as it serves many functions. It is one of the official languages. It is the working language, the language of education, the lingua franca and the language for the expression of national identity and the language used for international communication. Even though the written English in Singapore has been standardised, as teachers teach standard Singapore English in schools, the same standardisation cannot be extended to speaking. Many models surround us - both foreign and local. Although much research has been done in recent times to describe the spoken model of Singapore English, the form described is usually of the mesolectal variety, that is the variety spoken in informal speech and not of the acrolectal variety that is the educated one.
This study aims to find out if pronunciation is being taught in schools and its status among teachers. It also aims to discover the difficulties faced by teachers teaching pronunciation. It was found that pronunciation is not explicitly taught and other components of English such as grammar and summary skills are given priority. The difficulties that teachers face are examinations, time constraints, the difficulty in using certain methods due to classroom constraints, the role the environment plays, teacher' own high standard of good pronunciation and no model and the school beliefs.
Although the results cannot conclude what is actually happening in schools due to factors such as a small sample, no observations and the absence of students' feedback, this study may be valuable in highlighting questions for further research in the area of finding a pronunciation model for teaching English in Singapore.
This study aims to find out if pronunciation is being taught in schools and its status among teachers. It also aims to discover the difficulties faced by teachers teaching pronunciation. It was found that pronunciation is not explicitly taught and other components of English such as grammar and summary skills are given priority. The difficulties that teachers face are examinations, time constraints, the difficulty in using certain methods due to classroom constraints, the role the environment plays, teacher' own high standard of good pronunciation and no model and the school beliefs.
Although the results cannot conclude what is actually happening in schools due to factors such as a small sample, no observations and the absence of students' feedback, this study may be valuable in highlighting questions for further research in the area of finding a pronunciation model for teaching English in Singapore.
Date Issued
2000
Call Number
PE1137 Puj
Date Submitted
2000