Современные методы обучения английскому произношению

Introduction

English language is one of the international languages in all over the world. As any language, it has four main aspects that should be learnt in order to have a perfect command of the language. One of these aspects is speaking in which pronunciation constitutes fundamental element that should be known. For this, pronunciation takes an important part in teaching English. For a teacher of a foreign language there are some challenges he might have to deal with through teaching this essential part of language. However, this important aspect of the language it tends to be neglected in middle school.

Teaching pronunciation involves a variety of challenges. To begin with, teachers often find that they do not have enough time in class to give proper attention to this aspect of English instruction. When they do find the time to address pronunciation, the instruction often amounts to the presentation and practice of a series of tedious and seemingly unrelated topics. Drilling sounds over and over again (e.g., minimal pair work) often leads to discouraging results, and discouraged students and teachers end up wanting to avoid pronunciation altogether.

Many English teachers avoid teaching pronunciation, not because it is not necessary, but because they have little or no information on the subject. Proper pronunciation is essential when learning English as a second or foreign language however; the main goal is to be understood, after all, and if ship comes out as sheep, this purpose may be quickly defeated.

The aim of this paper is to present new techniques of teaching pronunciation in school. Keeping the aim in mind we have singled out the following directions of working on the problem:

— defining the role and place of pronunciation in English lessons

— aspects of pronunciation which require the most focus of a teacher

— strategies in pronunciation teaching

— possibilities of using these new techniques in middle school

In order to cover all these issues we have reviewed works of some prominent authors in this field as well as articles of practicing teachers such as Harmer J.,. Dalton D., Celce-Murcia M., Brinton D., Goodwin J.M. We have also used materials of numerous scientific conferences in order to gain information about modern approaches used by teachers in school.