EFL listening, pronunciation, and teachers' accents in the present era: An investigation into pre- and in-service teachers' cognition

EFL listening, pronunciation, and teachers' accents in the present era: An investigation into pre- and in-service teachers' cognition

• Tsang, Art The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Language Teaching Research, (0), -, 2021

SAGE Publications

2021

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GB English Language
    • GBC Teaching Methods of Listening, Conversation, Speech & Their Outcomes

EFL Listening English as a Lingua Franca/an International Language Pronunciation Teachers’ Accents Teacher Cognition Teachers’ Background World Englishes

• Hong Kong
• Guangdong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

The recent decades have seen enthusiastic calls for reconceptualizing English as a foreign language (EFL) education, taking into account the current socio-lingual status of English and how it is used genuinely for communication interculturally and internationally. However, a wide gap still exists between promulgation such as intelligibility over nativelikeness in pronunciation instruction and realities in the EFL classroom. The study investigated pre- and in-service teachers' cognition about accents and the incorporation of different accents in their classrooms. One hundred and sixty-six EFL teachers (89 pre-service and 77 in-service) from Hong Kong and Guangdong (a province in China) completed a questionnaire. Contrary to expectations, the teachers' overall attitude was neutral rather than positive towards General American (GA) / Received Pronunciation (RP)(1) associated with EFL teachers' accents and EFL education. Only two thirds of the teachers were certain about which accents to use and to teach in listening and pronunciation lessons (i.e. as many as one third were uncertain). Also, the participants were neutral about incorporating non-GA/RP accents into EFL lessons, with around one third objecting to doing so. Although no differences were found between pre- and in-service teachers' cognition, additional analysis revealed that teachers' individual background variables, namely teaching experience, self-rated language proficiency, and knowledge of sound systems (IPA for English; pinyin for Mandarin), have significant correlations with their cognition. Copyright ©2021 SAGE Publications.

• English

Journal Articles

• 13621688

• 10.1177/13621688211051981

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/5108812e

2022-05-12