[Podcast] Teacher education and Vietnamese EFL teachers’ pronunciation teaching

Keywords: pronunciation teaching; pronunciation pedagogy; language teacher education; secondary education; Vietnamese EFL

This study investigates the extent to which English as a foreign language teacher education prepares teachers to teach pronunciation through Vietnamese secondary EFL teachers’ narratives of their training experiences and how the teachers teach pronunciation in their English classes. Results show that the teachers received insufficient training in pronunciation pedagogy but demonstrated a high level of confidence in teaching English pronunciation. However, their pronunciation teaching centered on listen-and-repeat activities and/or error correction due largely to the nature of testing and assessment practices at their schools. The teachers further articulated beliefs about how teacher education in Vietnam could prepare EFL teachers, such that it needs to include more coverage of pronunciation practice and pedagogy to prepare future secondary EFL teachers to teach English pronunciation competently after graduation. 

The topic of second/foreign language teacher education (L2TE) has widely been researched for decades, providing empirical evidence on how L2 teachers learn, what specific knowledge and skills are required from proficient instructors, and what it takes to become effective L2 teachers. According to Freeman (2016), content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in L2TE programs together establish teachers’ knowledge base, enabling them to satisfactorily operate in their language classes. Yet, research shows that teachers’ identity and learning experiences also have important contributions to their success in the classroom (Burri et al., 2017; Newton et al., 2012). As such, a sociocultural approach has been advocated, taking individual teachers’ backgrounds and different learning experiences into account (Johnson & Golombek, 2020). Burri and Baker (2021) argue that such an approach to L2TE is believed to be holistic and effective to prepare L2 teachers as it meets student teachers’ diverse learning needs and thus can better prepare them to teach their future learners. These conceptual contributions are important, additional empirical research is yet required to obtain more nuanced understandings about how L2 pronunciation instructors can be competently prepared (Sadeghi, 2019) given that English proficiency by itself is inadequate for L2 pronunciation teachers to become effective. Instead, understandings about English phonology and knowledge of how to teach different phonological features to learners are equally important (Baker, 2014; Derwing & Munro, 2015; Levis, 2018). To date, the issue of how sufficiently teacher education prepares L2 teachers to teach English pronunciation, specifically within the contexts of Asian countries where English is spoken as a foreign language and where learners do not have much exposure to spoken English, is relatively under-examined. Thus, this study, through an investigation into the experiences and perceptions of four secondary EFL teachers about Vietnamese EFL teacher education and the teaching of English pronunciation, paves the way for subsequent research which will later add valuable contributions to the current international literature on L2TE research and the practice of pronunciation teaching at secondary settings.

The past three decades have seen a significant comeback of pronunciation research exploring L2 teachers’ beliefs and practices about pronunciation instruction (Buss, 2017; Foote at el., 2016; Nguyen & Newton, 2020), teacher professional development activities to improve pronunciation teaching (Nguyen & Newton, 2021), and students’ perceptions (Nguyen, 2019; Derwing & Rossiter, 2002; Kang, 2010). However, research into the preparation of English pronunciation instructors in L2TE programs has only recently emerged. The first steps towards looking at pronunciation teacher preparation were perhaps taken by Golombek and Jordan (2005), who examined how teachers at a Taiwanese university were prepared to teach pronunciation. The findings showed changes in the participants’ cognitions (knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes), such that the pronunciation pedagogy course they took enabled them to feel more effective as pronunciation instructors. Burri (2015) subsequently examined how student teachers’ cognitions developed during a pronunciation pedagogy course in the TESOL program at an Australian university. Results showed that development in the teachers’ cognitions about pronunciation instruction augmented their confidence in teaching English pronunciation and was closely intertwined with their identity construction. Consistent with Burri’s (2015) research findings, other studies have shed further light on how pronunciation pedagogy training positively changed teachers’ perceptions and confidence in pronunciation teaching (Buss, 2017; Tsunemoto et al., 2023; Nguyen & Newton, 2021) and shifted their instructional practices (Baker, 2014; Kochem, 2021). 

Overall, research has demonstrated that pronunciation pedagogy training contributes to L2 teachers’ knowledge and skills necessary for effective pronunciation teaching and has positive effects on teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices. However, this body of work was mainly conducted in ESL settings or centred on student-teachers in EFL contexts. Research focused on in-service teachers’ experiences and perceptions regarding pronunciation pedagogy training is, therefore, necessary given that understandings from this inquiry may provide useful information for the improvement of pronunciation teacher preparation in EFL settings such as Vietnam, a context in which how secondary EFL teachers learn to teach English pronunciation remains underexamined. The present study addresses this gap by exploring the beliefs and pronunciation teaching practices of four Vietnamese secondary EFL teachers in relation to EFL teacher education in Vietnam.

The findings showed that the teacher participants did not usually teach pronunciation explicitly in class and when they did it as a prescribed task, it was listen-and-repeat activities that they used. This finding aligns with previous research demonstrating the participants’ reliance on repetition drills as the main approach to pronunciation teaching (Couper, 2017; Nguyen & Newton, 2020; Wahid & Sulong, 2013). Although repetition is important to L2 learners’ pronunciation improvement (Saito & Lyster, 2012), it is “no longer a satisfactory tool for either the educator or the learner” (Adams-Goertel, 2013, p.121). In the present study, the teachers also reported correcting their students’ pronunciation at times using recasts and/or prompts. The influential role of corrective feedback in helping L2 learners develop language competency has been well-documented (Ellis, 2009; Nassaji, 2017). However, research has also shown that not many L2 learners would like teachers to correct their pronunciation errors through recasts and/or prompts (Couper, 2019; Nguyen, 2019). Instead, explicit instruction focused on both form and meaning is of paramount importance for them to develop their L2 pronunciation (Derwing, 2018; Foote & Trofimovich, 2018; Nguyen & Hung, 2021). Thus, it might be more meaningful if teachers teach pronunciation explicitly, immersing L2 learners in both form- and meaning-focused practice.

The study further revealed that the teachers were insufficiently trained to teach English pronunciation. This finding confirms previous research suggesting that many teachers received limited pronunciation pedagogy training (Bai & Yuan, 2019; Couper, 2017; Nguyen & Newton, 2020). Derwing (2010) has also pointed out that not many L2TE programs in Canada cover pronunciation pedagogy. In the present study, the teachers’ lack of pronunciation pedagogy training may impede the efficacy of their classroom instruction given that teachers who receive little guidance on how to teach pronunciation usually rely on their own intuition leading to ineffective teaching practices (Derwing & Munro, 2015). Thus, it is important for L2TE to include at least one course specifically focused on pronunciation pedagogy to assist L2 teachers to teach pronunciation effectively (Baker, 2014; Buss, 2017). 

An interesting finding of the present study is that the teachers, despite their lack of pronunciation pedagogy training, reported being confident to teach English pronunciation because of their pronunciation skills. This finding is encouraging as it supports Levis et al.’s (2016) claim that non-native English teachers are still able to teach pronunciation confidently. However, empirical evidence is necessary to shed light on how competent the teachers are to teach pronunciation in their English classes. Additionally, this finding contradicts a general claim that effective pronunciation instructors need knowledge of phonetics and phonology (content knowledge) and of how to teach pronunciation (pedagogical knowledge) (Baker, 2014; Crystal, 2019; Derwing & Munro, 2015; Levis, 2018). Previous studies have shown that many L2 teachers felt insecure to teach pronunciation because of their lack of both content and pedagogical knowledge (Bai & Yuan, 2019; Couper, 2017; Foote et al., 2011). Thus, observational data, a clear limitation of the present study, are needed to examine how confident and competent the teachers really are when they teach pronunciation in intact classes. This is important given that such observational data can be used to verify the teachers’ reported pronunciation teaching practices and that research has consistently shown a mismatch between what teachers said and what they did in class (Ha & Murray, 2021; Phipps & Borg, 2007; Wahid & Sulong, 2013).

Finally, the study revealed the teachers’ belief that Vietnamese teacher education needs to include pronunciation practice and pronunciation pedagogy courses to enhance student teachers’ pronunciation and pedagogical skills before they start teaching. This finding lends support to Burri’s (2015) proposition of giving student teachers the opportunity to improve their own pronunciation and subsequently foster pronunciation teaching skills. One teacher also suggested having a stand-alone course in phonetics and phonology to enable student teachers to develop content knowledge specifically required for effective pronunciation instruction. This view supports Baker’s (2014) recommendation of providing pre-service teachers with both knowledge of English phonology and pronunciation teaching approaches. 

Given that L2TE may have substantial influence on L2 teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about language learning and teaching (Lee, 2015; Macalister, 2023), it is urgent that Vietnamese EFL teacher education include more training in pronunciation skills and pedagogy, providing Vietnamese secondary EFL teachers with sufficient knowledge and skills required for effective pronunciation teaching. This is important because phonological knowledge and pronunciation-pedagogical knowledge make up the knowledge base that helps ESL/EFL teachers teach pronunciation with confidence (Baker, 2014; Baker & Murphy, 2011; Brinton, 2018; Levis, 2018). 

This research is an initial step to understand how Vietnamese secondary EFL teachers teach pronunciation and how sufficiently trained they are to teach pronunciation, providing grounds for future research to be carried out. With the inclusion of observational data, my later study and other subsequent research will together paint the complete picture of pronunciation teaching at Vietnamese secondary schools and how well-prepared Vietnamese EFL teachers are to teach pronunciation. This body of work will in turn make important contributions to the international literature on pronunciation teaching practices at secondary settings. Through four experienced secondary EFL teachers’ narratives, this pilot study has revealed an important gap in Vietnamese EFL teacher education regarding pronunciation teaching, such that the teachers were not well-prepared to teach English pronunciation. Thus, it is necessary that future L2TE include more coverage of pronunciation pedagogy to help Vietnamese EFL teachers efficiently teach pronunciation. Although the teachers reported being confident in their pronunciation teaching skills, explicit, deliberate pronunciation teaching was almost neglected in their English classes due to the nature of testing practices. The study findings are of value for practitioners, teacher educators, curriculum designers, and stakeholders alike within the Vietnamese EFL sector and beyond. 

Apart from the lack of observation data as acknowledged above, another limitation of this pilot study is that it involved only four secondary EFL teachers, providing only part of the whole picture about how Vietnamese secondary EFL teachers teach pronunciation in their English classes. Such a small sample therefore limits the generalizability of the study findings. Additionally, Vietnamese universities are largely autonomous in designing EFL teacher training programs which may vary from institution to institution regarding the coverage of pronunciation pedagogy training. Future studies should therefore involve a larger pool of teachers who receive training from different universities, including those with current postgraduate TESOL programs such as the one in this pilot study, across the country. 

Please refer to Teacher education and Vietnamese EFL teachers’ pronunciation teaching HERE. 

Author: PhD. Nguyen Tan Loc – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH)

This is an article in a series of articles spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the message “Research Contribution For All – Research For The Community”, UEH respectfully invites dear readers to look forward to the upcoming UEH Research Newsletter Insights #131.

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