Babkina, V. (2018). Phonological interference of mother tongue over the English

Part 1 became the subject for the study in Part 2.
The cases were narrowed down from nine to seven after the 
analysis of the questionnaire.

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69 
3.6.2
 
Part 2. The intervention. The use of pronunciation practice 
and instruction.
 
Materials and resources used in the intervention.
For the purpose of the present study a variety of TEFL materials 
and resources were selected and applied during the intervention. Practical 
pronunciation exercises and instruction oriented towards each problem 
case of phonological interference were selected from different resources 
and combined accordingly.
Below there is a list of the coursebooks and teachers´ resource 
books used in the investigation (not in the order they were applied in the 
intervention). The advantages of each of them are stated consequently.
1) “New Headway Pronunciation Elementary” by S. Cunningham 
and P. Moor (2002); 

The coursebook contains four types of exercises which aim 
to deal with sounds, connected speech, intonation and 
sentence stress, and word focus. The activities became very 
beneficial for present work due to their variety in dealing 
with the English consonant sounds, and moreover, due to 
attractive content of the exercises.

There are valuable instructions complemented with pictures 
that relate to articulation of the L2 consonant sounds 
pronunciation. Learners can visualise the way the organs of 
speech work and, therefore, have better understanding of 
the way the English consonant sounds are produced.

The pronunciation aspects are gradually presented and 
practiced in words, word combination, sentences and 
situations. Learners are expected to work with problem 
sounds initially in words and further bring the practice to 
communicative context.

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70 

The coursebook contains a table that indicates the problem 
phonemes that people of different nationalities usually face 
when dealing with the English sounds. The table also 
demonstrates the pronunciation difficulties that Peruvian 
learners as Spanish speakers cope with.

Each unit has instructions that call upon learners´ mother 
tongue in order to compare and contrast L1 and L2 
pronunciation aspects. This gives learners the possibility to 
feel more at ease when dealing with L2 pronunciation, be 
able to find similarities in both languages and cope with 
differences in sounds without any fear of making mistakes. 

The pronunciation symbols are introduced in each unit so 
that learners can get acquainted with each symbol by means 
of activities. The ability to recognise phonetic symbols 
facilitates work with English language dictionaries 
whenever it is necessary to look up a word or sound 
pronunciation. 

Audio recordings included with the coursebook cater for 
listening to and practicing the correct sounds pronunciation.
2) “Pronunciation Practice Activities Book and Audio CD Pack. A 
Resource Book for Teaching English Pronunciation”
 
by M. Hewings 
(2004). 

The resource book for teachers highlights many essential 
teaching and learning L2 pronunciation issues, such as how 
to integrate pronunciation into a teaching programme, how 
to test pronunciation, what pronunciation features are the 
most important to teach, and so on. It also offers valuable 
suggestions and instruction about how to solve these 
problems in the classroom.