Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Variability within the system
There are several ways in which the pronunciation of English
can vary. The most obvious one is dialectal variation. Even if
RP, or Standard Southern English, is accepted as a
convenient general norm for international purposes (as it is
in this book), there are many areas in which a local version of
English is acceptable and of greater usefulness to students. In
this case many features of the sound system will differ from
those generally presented in texts and courses covering
English phonetics. Whichever dialect is chosen as a model for
teaching, students should wherever possible be exposed to
other dialects of English so that, at the very least, they will
not be too narrowly restricted in their expectations of what
English can sound like. There is nowadays such a range of
varieties of English in evidence on radio, TV, records and
tapes, not to mention films and native speakers living locally,
that most learners can gain experience of a range of dialects.
It is inevitable that a language in normal use in a
community will in time change in pronunciation, vocabulary
and grammar. No amount of formal teaching can prevent the
development of local varieties of English, however desirable
an international standard might be. As soon as he leaves the
classroom, every second language learner will consciously or
unconsciously strive to speak in the way that is acceptable to
the people he wishes to group himself with. One cannot even
say that the retention of RP as the norm at school will ensure
that the local dialect does not move too far from
international standards. What is more likely to happen is

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Pronunciation
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that learners operate two dialects, the school’s and the local
variety. Since this is very common in Great Britain, as well as
many countries, e.g. Nigeria, it is quite a reasonable
compromise, though in some cases it may increase the
students’ learning burden too much.
Within any dialect, there are usually further variations
related to social class, educational level and idiosyncratic
factors. But these variations are still subject to the rules of the
system used by the speech community in general—otherwise
communication would break down. That is to say, while
speakers have a certain amount of freedom to vary the way
they pronounce words, they are by no means totally free. The
sound /t/, which can be said clearly and distinctly in isolation,
can, in the middle of a word like matter sound rather like /d/
or like /ð/ as in mother, or like /r/, or even like the sound we
make when we cough (a glottal stop—a quick closure and
release of the vocal chords). All of these will, in context,
suffice for the word matter. But if a speaker were to use /f/ he
would not be understood. For every sound system, there is a
range of possible variations and native speakers do not
(except when sleepy, drunk or ill) go beyond the permitted
range.
Such variations are a source of difficulty when a foreigner
encounters native English speakers after studying English
pronunciation in his own country. Since it is impractical for a
teacher to teach more than one pronunciation in class, and,
in any case, most teachers tend to think of an ideal, careful,
way of speech when they are in the classroom, the student
gains a limited view of what the actual pronunciation of
English really is like. Usually this affects his understanding
more than his own speech. It does not matter if he habitually
speaks more ‘carefully’ than native speakers, and, for
example, always pronounces the /t/ in matter the same way
as the /t/ in term. He will at least always be understood. He
will not mind being recognised as a foreigner, since he will
realise that this is usually inevitable and even carries some
advantages!
But he can expect his teaching to equip him to follow
normal English speech. The teacher therefore has to operate
a double standard in his pronunciation teaching. For the
students’ own speech he can choose a conventional model

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Pronunciation
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which is optimally useful for general understanding. But for
the students’ recognition of speech he must ensure that a
good variety of styles is used for practice listening.