Sgem 2016 Social Sciences & Arts

LISTENER FRIENDLY PRONUNCIATION 
Harmer [5] states that pronunciation activities do not only help students to be confident 
of different sounds and sound features, but it most importantly helps students to 
improve their spoken skills. Focusing on where the sounds are in the mouth and which 
syllables are stressed in the words fortifies students’ comprehension and intelligibility. 
It is proved that speakers whose pronunciation is listener friendly can lead a successful 
conversation even with their grammatical mistakes better than speakers whose grammar 
obeys all the rules and it can increase self-confidence and a positive self-image of 
learners. 
DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF PRONUNCIATION
Pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds. The habit of producing a sound is 
acquired by repeating it repeatedly and by being corrected when it is pronounced 
wrongly. Learning to pronounce a second language means building up new 
pronunciation habits L2 and overcoming the bias of the L1. 
A broad definition of pronunciation includes suprasegmental and segmental features. 
Pronunciation in English language teaching should be not focus on sounding like a 
native speaker or preferred pronunciation model but on intelligible pronunciation. The 
role of intelligible pronunciation is the most important and represents speaking in a way 
that most listeners can understand without too much effort or confusion. 
Language in its spoken form which is pronounced and according Crystal [6] consists of 
these three levels:
• subsegmental (the level of features, in other words characteristic properties of 
phones; voicing,)
• segmental (the level of phones or, more practically, phonemes)
• suprasegmental (the level of prosody comprising rhythm and intonation)
Pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning. It 
includes attention to the particular sounds of a language (segments), aspects of speech 
beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, 
rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality) and, in its 
broadest definition, attention to gestures, expressions and body language