Presentation

Pronunciation From the Perspective of Pre-Service EFL Teachers: An Analysis of Internship Reports

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Abstract

This pilot study analyzed internship reports written by seven pre-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Brazil with the purpose of investigating the student teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices regarding pronunciation. Data analysis involved reading through the reports and coding the excerpts in which pronunciation was addressed. These codes were then collapsed into four broader themes (Creswell, 2012): identifying problems, explaining problems, dealing with problems, and expressing beliefs. The findings suggest that the student teachers had unclear knowledge of the phonologies of English and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and that they were not fully aware of the reasons behind common pronunciation errors made by Brazilian EFL learners. Overall, pronunciation was taught mainly through modelling and repetition, and greater attention was given to segments or individual words. These results differ from previous research findings in ESL settings, where teachers reported using more varied techniques and teaching a combination of segmentals and suprasegmentals (Breitkreutz, Derwing, & Rossiter, 2001; Burgess & Spencer, 2000; Foote, Holtby, & Derwing, 2011). They also suggest that the pre-service teachers in Brazil were not adequately prepared to teach pronunciation, which might point to a flaw in their university education.

How to Cite:

Buss, L., (2012) “Pronunciation From the Perspective of Pre-Service EFL Teachers: An Analysis of Internship Reports”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 4(1).