Pronunciation standard in the context of lingua franca: From changing requirements to changing attitudes

Abstract

The article explores the latest tendencies in teaching English pronunciation described in recent research and CEFR, where the main goal of pronunciation acquisition for successful communication in the international context has shifted from “nativeness” to “intelligibility”. The analysis of the latest empirical studies has revealed EFL students’ persistent desire to approximate idealised native-speaker pronunciation despite their awareness of the new status of English as a Lingua Franca. The authors conducted their own quan- titative study by administering a questionnaire to 53 first-year English majors. The results have shown that the participants still see the native-like pronunciation as a goal regardless of the new international recommendations.

Keywords

• pronunciation
• english as a lingua franca
• phonetics
• phonological competence
• attitude research