A system of activities to enhance phonological control in 4th graders
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Fecha
2020-05-21
Autores
Padilla Loy, Yasiel
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Universidad Central Marta Abréu de las Villas. Facultad Media Superior
Resumen
Pronunciation has always been a gray area in the teaching of English within the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and all
over the world. That is why, since the very beginning of language teaching, it
has been under researched by scholars working in second/foreign language
education. As a result, several methods, approaches and techniques among
others have been created to address this problem in order to respond to the
developments in pedagogical and societal visions. Nevertheless, the reason to
their failures lays on the ultimate purpose of pronunciation which was rooted in
the traditional idea of the ‘native speaker’ as a model or perception of the
norm in pronunciation, focusing in accent and accuracy.
Nowadays, a new sensibility has been emerging in the applied linguists’
scholarly community when it comes to re-evaluating this traditional
approach. Consequently, the CEFR (2018) carried out an extensive review of
literature and consultation with experts in order to redevelop from scratch the
phonological control scale which seemed to reinforce the traditional view. As a
result, this scale was renewed from scratch creating new descriptors to learn,
teach and assess pronunciation. Thus, a new view of the teaching of
pronunciation has emerged focusing on intelligibility.
The teaching of English in Cuba is facing this problem as well. Our students
struggle with pronunciation and their incapacity to understand and being
understood, that is why this research was carried out. It is derived from the
necessity that the students from 4
th grade at “Mártires de Barbados” Elementary
School in Remedios (and all students in general) have shown in their
phonological control within the teaching of pronunciation. Therefore, with the
intent to address this issue in the Cuban schools, this paper offers a system of
activities as a tool to improve 4th grade students’ phonological control within the
teaching learning process of English.
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Palabras clave
Educación Superior, Educación, Didáctica del Idioma, Lenguas Extranjeras, Inglés, Pronunciación