On Pronunciation Teaching and Semiotics

Pronunciation was defined as “the act or result of producing the sounds of speech, including articulation, intonation, and rhythm” by McArthur (1992, p. 810). However, different approaches and methods have held different and sometimes controversial views concerning pronunciation and its instruction throughout the language education history since the beginning of the grammar-translation method. One viewed pronunciation as irrelevant to teaching, the other regarded it as “meaningless non-communicative drill-and-exercise gambits” (Morley, 1991, pp. 485-486). Yet, the other saw little connection between teaching and learning of pronunciation and acquiring sufficient level of pronunciation competency. It can be also stated that the scope of teaching pronunciation has been significantly affected by different school of thoughts of that particular time. Current pronunciation teaching trends have been affected by varying disciplines such as psychology, sociology, computer technology and semiotics to a great extent. This paper aims at emphasizing the importance of semiotic elements in pronunciation teaching and suggests ways to implement it appropriately in language classrooms. Then, it describes a lesson plan of a pronunciation class for pre-intermediate level preparation class in detail.