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ERIC Number: ED491814
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 50
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Awareness-Raising in the TEFL Phonology Classroom: Student Voices and Sociocultural and Psychological Considerations
Zhang, Lawrence Jun
Online Submission, ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics v145 n1 p219-268 2004
This paper reports on two phases of a study of a group of advanced TEFL (teachers-of-English-as-a-foreign-language) students. To raise their awareness of the importance of discourse intonation while they were receiving teacher training, this study focuses on examining their sociocultural and psychological inclinations in the choice of phonological models. The first phase is an exploration of their attitudes toward or voices about a native-speaker variety (British English) and a nonnative (Chinese EFL-speaker) variety of English pronunciation and intonation. The second reports on a didactic intervention study of the impact of activities that engaged the students in the awareness-raising of the importance of suprasegmental features, especially discourse intonation, on self-perceptions of their efficacy and confidence in communication. The results showed a systematic pattern of participant endorsement for a native-speaker model and a clear improvement in their perceptions of the importance of suprasegmental features of standard English because of teacher-student co-construction of meaning through interactive awareness-raising activities. The findings are discussed with reference to the students' sociocultural and psychological needs in TEFL training, particularly with reference to recent academic discourse on the issue of "linguistic imperialism" (Canagarajah, 1999; Phillipson, 1992, 1996) and EIL [English as an international language] in pedagogy (Jenkins, 1998, 2002) and their wider implications in typical EFL contexts. Appended are: (1) Sentences Used in Awareness-Raising Activities; (2) Participant Judgments of the Models/Varieties of English Produced by Native and Nonnative Speakers; (3) Participant Perceptions of Various Factors Relating to Native and Nonnative Models/Varieties of English Prior to the Awareness-Raising Activities; and (4) Participant Feedback After Awareness-Raising. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A