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

particular goals. In other words, it is significant to specify what goals in 
pronunciation should be set for EFL learners. Nowadays the role of the 
English language in the globalized world has changed and the use of this 
language has become more practical.
Some time ago native-like pronunciation was considered to be the 
only aim to achieve when teaching and learning English pronunciation, 
even though only few learners could reach that. J. Kenworthy (1987:3) 
in 
the book “Teaching English pronunciation (Longman handbooks for 
language teachers)” 
affirms that “for the majority of learners a far more 
reasonable goal is to be comfortably intelligible
71
”. 
It is relevant to define 
what the word “intelligible” means. Longman Dictionary of 
Contemporary English (2000) has the following definition: “Intelligible 
speech, writing, or ideas that can be easily understood
72
”. In the context 
of communication the importance of being “easily understood” is 
undoubtedly high. Therefore, when speaking about “intelligible”, we 
think of the quality of information or the way the information is being 
transmitted by a speaker to a listener in order to make it comprehensible. 
The process involves both a speaker and a listener where the concepts of 
intelligibility and comprehensibility are closely associated.
That is to say, 
it implicates being able to be easily understood by a listener who will not 
have to ask for multiple repetitions of what has been said. However, 
Kenworthy also states that those learners who are eager to set themselves 
higher goals and try to reach native-like pronunciation should not be 
discouraged by a teacher but provided with all the necessary assistance.
Another important topic that is highlighted by Kenworthy (1987) is 
the significance of building awareness and concern for pronunciation. 
Learners of English are usually not informed about the peculiarities of 
the second language pronunciation features. The author affirms that 
language learners must develop concern and awareness for pronunciation 
because unintelligible speech resulting from inadequate phonological 
71
Kenworthy, J. (1987): 
Teaching English pronunciation (Longman handbooks for 
language teachers
). London: Longman Publishing.
 
72
British National Corpus.
 
(2000):
Longman dictionary of contemporary English
(3
rd 
ed.). Harlow, England: Longman, p. 741.

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44 
accuracy causes mutual frustration and unpleasantness for both listeners 
and speakers. The EFL learners normally cannot deal with the foreign 
language pronunciation aspects alone without a help of their teacher. 
Therefore, a lot of general awareness–building activities are offered in 
the book by Kenworthy (1987) to deal with both segmental and 
suprasegmental pronunciation features. For instance, for sound 
pronunciation practice the following exercises can be mentioned: 
listening for a specific word, dictations, minimal pairs, phonetic bingo, 
questionnaires, tape-based activities, story-telling and so on. Some of the 
given activities were used in the present investigation during the 
experiment.
To continue with the topic, it is important to point out the 
significance of using multimedia in pronunciation practice. The author 
E.L. Low (2014:160) in “Pronunciation for English as an International 
Language” assures that “it is useful for teachers and learners alike to 
know that there is a lot of software that can be used to assist in teaching 
and learning pronunciation
73
”. The book names a variety of software 
applications to teach and practice both segmental and suprasegmental 
features. 
Moreover, the Internet can be used as a very diverse resource with 
its videos, digital books, podcasts, speech tools and so on. For example, 
Youtube allows us to look for accent training videos where people 
demonstrate the accents of the varieties of English, or videos with 
phonetic articulation of the consonant sounds of the English language. 
Another tool to be used is digital audiobooks whose authentic recording 
include different genres, radio and TV programmes, courses on different 
subjects. This source is highly motivational for both teachers and EFL 
learners.
Low (2014) also mentions the possibility to use speech tools from 
the Internet. For example, freely available software is Audacity which 
allows recording and editing speech, and includes other functions. Other 
available software is Praat or WaveSurfer. Last but not least, mobile 
73
Low, E.L. (2014). Ibid. p. 160. 

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45 
technologies such as smart phones, IPod, IPad or other tablets have 
“revolutionised the way English can be learnt
74
”.
There is a variety of pedagogical techniques to be used in TEFL 
and there are always different factors to be kept in mind before applying 
any. However, the principal goal to be achieved in any language 
classroom context is (Roach 1983:6) “to develop the learner´s 
pronunciation sufficiently to permit effective communication
75
”.
A great load of the ideas and recommendations about pronunciation 
teaching and learning have been taken into consideration and applied by 
the researcher of the present paper. The studies mentioned in the chapter 
have become a real support during the process of the investigation.