Relatore Chiar mo Prof. Graziano Serragiotto Correlatore

9. 
Discussion and Conclusion 
Generally, all the teachers seemed to be well aware of the importance of providing a correct 
model of English pronunciation to young learners. Most of them believe that specialist teachers are 
more prepared and better trained for this task compared to specialised teachers, and think that 
focusing only on the teaching of English would give better results in terms of teaching quality in 
general, including the teaching of pronunciation. In this regard, the vast majority of them disagree 
with the intention of the Ministry to eliminate of the specialist teacher. 
In accordance with the National Guidelines for the Curriculum, on average, the teachers 
claimed to spend the majority of the time on developing oral skills. Concerning pronunciation, on 
average, they claimed to spend at least some time on developing pronunciation skills. However, there 
is a significant variety in the answers; therefore, we assume that there is a bit of confusion about the 
amount of time that should be spent on teaching pronunciation. 
Overall, the techniques, the activities and the materials that are the most commonly and the 
most frequently used for the development of pronunciation skills are: 
a)
Listen and repeat/imitate sounds, words and sentences produced by the teacher or other 
sources; 
b)
Singing songs or nursery rhymes; 
c)
Reading dialogues aloud; 
d)
Chain drills; 
e)
Articulatory descriptions; 
f)
Correction. 
Moreover, the activity that involves reading and listening simultaneously is common and used quite 
frequently. 
The techniques, the activities and the materials that the majority of the teachers consider to be 
the most effective for enhancing the pupils’ pronunciation skills are: 
a)
Listening and repeating/imitating sounds, words and sentences; 
b)
Listening, especially to songs, nursery rhymes and dialogues; 
c)
Singing songs and nursery rhymes. 
Other techniques, activities and materials that are considered to be effective are: 

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a)
Phonetic training and exercises on the most problematic sounds for Italians; 
b)
Oral production techniques and activities that involve dialogues; 
c)
Correction and self-correction; 
d)
Collaboration with a native speaker during English lessons and the presence of pupils 
that are native English speakers in the classroom. 
Generally, the pupils showed a high appreciation for the English language. However, 
concerning oral production, a significant number of the pupils claimed that they sometimes feel 
uncomfortable when they speak English. Regarding English lessons, about one fourth of them have 
the perception of rarely speaking English and the majority of them do not have the perception of 
interacting often with their classmates in English. Feeling uncomfortable, difficulty to speak English 
and to pronounce English sounds might be some of the causes for these results. However, as already 
mentioned before, many other factors need to be taken into consideration. The results suggest that a 
significant number of the pupils seem to be aware of the problems and the difficulties related to the 
pronunciation of English sounds and of the ones related to the inconsistency between spelling and 
pronunciation in English. 
Overall, the pupils’ answers confirmed what the teachers claimed about the 
techniques, the activities and the materials they use and the frequency with which they use them. 

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