Fifth Annual Conference
Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa USA
Pronunciation in the Language Teaching Curriculum
September 20-21, 2013
Plenary Speaker
Lynda Yates, Macquarie University
Pronunciation, once a mainstay of language teaching and language teacher education, has long been ignored or relegated to elective status in the classroom. Even though research has established that pronunciation plays a central role in speech intelligibility (e.g., Brodkey, 1972; Fayer & Krasinski, 1987; Smith & Rafiqzad, 1979), and teachers and learners believe in its value (MacDonald, 2002), pronunciation is rarely incorporated into instructional objectives, and when it is taught is usually done so in an ad hoc fashion. In regard to teacher education, Murphy (1997) found that TESL teacher preparation programs that included coursework in phonetics and phonology could greatly benefit by focusing on applied approaches to phonology, including practical training in teaching pronunciation. However, pronunciation teacher education has not changed much since that time, and there is still a great need for training in the teaching of pronunciation in language teacher education.
The 5th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference invites proposals for papers and posters on all topics related to re-establishing a significant role for pronunciation in language teaching curricula. Possible paper topics include descriptive and experimental studies, discussions of instructional approaches that emphasize intelligibility and that connect pronunciation to other language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and vocabulary; case studies of ways in which pronunciation is included in language teaching; studies about how pronunciation is represented in language teaching texts; choices of targets for instruction; and innovative approaches to teacher education.
In addition to papers related to the place of pronunciation in the language teaching curriculum, the conference invites proposals for papers or posters on any aspect of pronunciation research, teaching and learning. Papers will be given in English, but papers addressing the teaching and learning of pronunciation for any language are encouraged.
Presenters will be invited to submit their papers for a peer-reviewed, online proceedings of the conference.