Considerations When Planning Pronunciation Tasks

Instruction in this realm of communicative competence should follow this sequence:

• The focus should first be placed on ‘thought groups’. Thought groups are defined as ‘a group of words that naturally go together. They are a discrete stretch of speech that forms a semantically and grammatically coherent segment of discourse.

• Once extensive attention is given to the teaching of thought groups, the focus can move to the second feature of pronunciation, prominence.

• Then, featured words.

• Then, syllable counts and word stress.

• And finally, if time in the course allows, the vowel system.