Teaching of English Pronunciation to Advanced ESL Learners: Perceptual Training or Production Training?

In L2 phonology research much focus has been put on learners’ production of L2 speech sounds, but with the introduction of theories such as the Speech Learning Model (Flege, 1995), Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best, 1994), etc., perception has also become the focus of much research attention. Not only has speech perception been given more attention, but the effects of the similarities, rather than differences, between the L1 and the L2 have also been focused on. As far as learner problems are concerned, although much research argues that differences between two languages will result in learner difficulties, it has also been found that the more similar an L1 and an L2 speech sound is, the more difficulties ESL learners will encounter (Major, 2001). In the teaching of English pronunciation, much pedagogical efforts have also been put on the teaching of speech production. Given that perception informs production in the learning of L2 speech sounds (Best, 1994; Flege, 1995), there arises the question of whether perception training or production training should be more important to students. This paper puts forward some suggestions for L2 pronunciation teaching which can help advanced ESL learners overcome their problems with the perception and production of L2 English speech sounds. It argues that both speech perception and speech production should be given comparable pedagogical attention. Not only should ESL students be guided to the articulatory features of L2 speech sounds, but they should also be guided to the perceptual characteristics of the sounds. ESL learners should also be alerted to the subtle differences between similar but distinct L1 and L2 speech sounds. Other specific speech perception and production teaching focuses enlightened by relevant research on ESL learner difficulties will be also discussed. (References skipped)