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17TRENDS IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION: THE PENDULUM
SWINGS Musayeva Z.
Musayeva Zebo - Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, UZBEK STATE UNIVERSITY OF WORLD LANGUAGES, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: over the years, styles of language teaching have changed greatly, and the same is true of teaching pronunciation. In some time periods, teaching pronunciation has been considered extremely important, while at other times it hasn't been given much attention at all. Trends in teaching pronunciation are like a swinging pendulum—the emphasis goes from one extreme to the other.
Keywords: intonation, rhythm, stress, prominence, sound forms.
Until recently, the focus in pronunciation teaching was almost entirely on producing individual sounds and words correctly; not much attention was given to features such as intonation and rhythm. In the last 20 years or so, however, teachers and researchers have begun to realize the importance of these "musical" aspects of pronunciation and to emphasize them more strongly in teaching [1]. Some scholars have gone so far as to claim that teaching individual sounds is not so important, and intonation, stress, prominence, and rhythm should be emphasized above all [2].
It seems more practical, though, to realize that no single aspect of pronunciation can stand on its own. Our students can benefit from learning about both individual sounds and the musical aspects of pronunciation, and we need to find a balance between these two areas. The pendulum of teaching trends might keep swinging, but we don't have to let it knock us down. Choose methods and activities that combine both aspects of pronunciation so that the combination works best for you and your students. Many things contribute to learning pronunciation, from students' ages, motivation, and personality— which depend on the learners themselves—to the quality of the teaching and the students' first language— which are outside factors.
We've all observed how easily babies and very young children learn languages. They just seem to absorb the sounds and words they hear around them and, little by little, learn to imitate them accurately. Linguists call this time in a child's life, lasting up to the age of about 12 to 14 years, the critical period for language acquisition. Children can learn the sounds of language more naturally than adults and can approach native speaker pronunciation, but only if they are surrounded by the language and have many chances to hear its pronunciation. Young children who hear English only a couple of hours a week lose much of their learning advantage.
Effective pronunciation learning is not limited to young children, however. Older children and adults have their own strengths and can also learn pronunciation well, even if they never sound quite like native speakers. Adults are better able to set goals and to practice purposefully. They can understand more abstract explanations and analyze how sounds are produced and how the melody and rhythm of a language sound. Adults should not give up the hope of having easily intelligible pronunciation; they just have to reach their goal in a different way than children.
Learners in any subject area tend to make more progress if they want to learn. No teacher can force students to learn if they're not motivated. A proverb says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." This also applies to teaching pronunciation. We can provide information and many chances to practice, but we don't have the power to change our students' pronunciation for them. They have to want to do it and be willing to do the work themselves.
Three general sets of goals or desires have been suggested that can motivate students in language learning [3, p.78.]:
• Learners want to be accepted into a group that uses the language. The group might still recognize the learners as "outsiders," but they can function well in the group. This is sometimes called integrative motivation.
• They want to be accepted as real members of the group. They don't want to be thought of as "outsiders." This is called assimilative motivation.
• They want to be able to use the language to reach a goal: To get a job, to conduct business, to pass a test, or to travel easily in a foreign country. This is called instrumental motivation.
Teachers sometimes assume that more outgoing learners will be able to learn pronunciation better than shyer students, and there may be some truth to this. Confident students might speak more and be more willing to try new sounds, and this extra practice could help them improve their pronunciation. However, this improvement is certainly not guaranteed. Some outgoing students may be producing a lot of language, but they may also be jumping ahead without paying attention to the accuracy of their pronunciation. The study of sounds is especially indispensable for those who learn English as a foreign language because what is the right word in one situation will be wrong in many other, apparently similar, contexts.
If listeners are impressed by their fluency and accept their imperfect pronunciation, they have no way to know that they need to improve.
References
1. Crystal D. (2003). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing.
2. Grant L. (2010). Well said. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
3. Levis J.M. (2005). Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching.
TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 369-377.
СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЕ ТИПЫ ФРАЗЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ЕДИНИЦ
Мухамадиева М.
Мухамадиева Мадина - преподаватель, кафедра теоретических дисциплин английского языка 3, Университет мировых языков, г. Ташкент, Республика Узбекистан
Аннотация: фразеологический фонд языка можно представить в виде семантической структуры, имеющей свое ядро и периферию. Ядром структуры являются ФЕ, компоненты которых полностью изменили свое значение под влиянием друг друга. Менее спаянными представляются ФЕ, которые сохраняют прямое значение одного из компонентов и непосредственно примыкают к ядру фонда. Ключевые слова: фразеологические единицы, фразеологический оборот, фразеологические выражения.
Устойчивые сочетания называют фразеологическим оборотом - воспроизводимая языковая единица, состоящая из двух или нескольких знаменательных слов, целостная по своему значению и устойчивая по структуре [1]. Как установлено, фразеологические обороты - яркое стилистическое средство, они делают речь образной и точной, красочной и выразительной, оживляют и украшают
