The Handbook of English Pronunciation

24The Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca

ROBIN WALKER AND WAFA ZOGHBOR

Introduction

For most English language teachers the current goal of pronunciation teaching is either (near-) native-speaker competence or “comfortable intelligibility” (Kenworthy 1987). Both goals assume a native-speaker listener and nobody seriously questioned the dependence of pronunciation teaching on NS norms until the publication of empirical data obtained from the study of interactions between non-native speakers (Jenkins 1998). These data led Jenkins to challenge the validity of native-speaker judgments of intelligibility when English was being used as a lingua franca (ELF). Her research also led to the development of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a set of key segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation features present in all NNS English regardless of the speaker’s accent (Jenkins 2000).

This chapter will explore the origins of the pronunciation for English as a lingua franca, before going on to detail how an ELF approach to teaching pronunciation can be put into practice. Key issues that will be dealt within the chapter include:

• ENL, ESL, EFL, and ELF: differences in pronunciation teaching goals.
• Variation, accent, and intelligibility.
• The Lingua Franca Core.
• Teaching ELF pronunciation – classroom models.
• Teaching ELF pronunciation – classroom techniques.
• Teaching ELF pronunciation – the learner’s mother-tongue phonology.
• Concerns regarding the teaching of pronunciation for ELF.

ENL, ...