Questões de Concurso

    The role of pronunciation in non-native language teaching has been in a state of constant change. In the earlier approaches, foreign language pronunciation was either the result of exposure to the target language or of approaches which used complex sets of drills and repetitions. As suggested, to a large extent, the importance of pronunciation has always been determined by ideology and intuition rather than by research. Teachers have intuitively decided which features have the greatest effect on clarity and which are learnable in a classroom setting. Saito claims that while the morphological and syntactical levels of languages are taught in contextualized meaningful exercises, pronunciation practice is decontextualized due to the use of drills and repetition.

    Pronunciation is one of the aspects of language both native and non-native teachers of English are not keen on teaching, and a lack of adequate teacher training results in an intuitive use of available materials and techniques. Setting pedagogical goals must be based on knowledge of pronunciation issues. Unqualified teachers may have misconceptions about phonological phenomena, cannot evaluate or use teaching materials accurately, and do not set realistic goals when teaching pronunciation. Furthermore, even teaching materials do not reflect the conclusions of current research, and they can be perceived as boring; however, Baker argues that teachers who complete a pronunciation course have, and apply, a wider range of pronunciation activities in their classrooms.

    Michelle Phan says she had to quit making her popular makeup and beauty YouTube videos because she was burned out. “It became harder and harder for me to pretend to be happy,” she says. “As a result, I had become toxic with my relationships and friendships. I had my threshold.” 

Internet: <www.bbc.com> (adapted).