DEVELOPING THE PRONUNCIATION SKILLS

Annual Review of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Volume 2, 2005

DEVELOPING THE PRONUNCIATION SKILLS OF NON-SPECIALIST EFL TEACHERS IN EGYPT: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

KHALED EL-EBYARY

Abstract

The present research had an ultimate objective which was investigating the effectiveness of an in-service training program in

developing basic pronunciation skills of non–specialist EFL teachers at the primary stage in Egypt. Therefore, 65 non-specialist

primary school EFL teachers were randomly chosen and assigned into one experimental group. Although they were graduates of

different departments other than English, their scores in the pre-post testing were similar. Interviews as well as a pilot study were

administered to make sure that pronunciation skills were among their urgent needs. A questionnaire was developed to decide

upon the most urgent skills. The program was developed in the light of the results of the questionnaire, interviews and pertinent

literature. A pre-post speaking test was developed to measure the effectiveness of the program. Blacke’s Modified Gain Ratio

and T-test were used in data analysis. Findings revealed that the program was effective in developing the target skills and that the

original specialties of the English teachers were insignificant.

Keywords

Teacher education, In-service teacher training, Pronunciation skills, Non-specialist teacher, Teacher training models

Introduction
In spite of the fact that more and more demands are being placed on the foreign language (FL) teaching profession, the foreign language teacher preparation itself is currently faced with a number of challenges all over the world. One of these challenges is the need for a more qualified FL teacher though there is not much consensus on what “qualified” is or how to measure it in most contexts where English is taught as a foreign language (Lewis et.al. 2000). However, like many of these contexts, teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) in Egypt has a long history in suffering from some major problems. Cullen (1994) assigned certain features of the process of TEFL in Egypt as he himself was involved in the field of in-service training in Egypt and Bangladesh for seven years. These features are:
1- English is taught as a compulsory foreign language ,
2- teacher’s contact with the language itself or the natives is non-existent,
3- new communicative textbooks are being introduced and this in turn requires a good teacher with a good command of the communication skills of the foreign language s/he is to teach,
4- and that English curriculum emphasizes the use of English, as opposed to the mother tongue in the English classroom and this is reinforced by school supervisors to the extent that FL teachers are partially assessed on the ground of their FL use in their classes.

Moreover, unlike what recent trends in educational reform claim that candidates for the TEFL profession should be well-selected according to certain standards (Edward 1997), most primary schools do currently have large numbers of working teachers who are graduates of different university majors other than English. A great number of English teachers are non-specialist and they have received no special training as they are specialized in other subjects and that is why their experience of formal course work in English usually dates back to the time at which they were at secondary school. This has brought a lot of problems to the language classroom because there is a great risk in allowing untrained teachers to teach a foreign language to young pupils. These teachers are supposed to help pupils learn, acquire and form knowledge, skills and attitudes towards the foreign language while they have received no training to at least ascertain their knowledge base in the subject matter they are to teach. Some of these non-specialist teachers might even have negative attitudes due to their incompetency. What aggravates the problem is that TEFL starts at the first grade of the primary stage (NCERD 2001) and most of these teachers lack what can be termed a subject matter knowledge base that would help them teach the language.

However, educational reform movements have been among the major priorities of the Egyptian Ministry of Education for more than a decade now. To put these reform efforts into action, ambitious programs have a number of objectives to achieve. These objectives are results of several national debates through conferences, symposia and seminars like the National Conference for Developing Primary Education 1993, the National Conference for Developing Preparatory Education 1994, the National Conference for Developing Teacher Preparation, Training and Caring 1996 and the International Conference on Education 1996. One of the major recommendations of these events is training teachers in a way to guarantee that they get varied educational, professional and cultural experience. Yet, most of the training efforts have been devoted to procedural training, that is teaching skills, rather than training programs that would balance the knowledge base to the skills one.

The primary TEFL teachers in Egypt: what do they need?

Although modern education has assigned a diversity of roles to the EFL teacher, his major role as an instructor is still most significant of all. Realizing the importance of TEFL at the primary stage (Richard 2000; Aschwordy and Wakefield 1994; Halliwell 1993 and Dunn 1983), I think that a competent EFL teacher who can make good use of the advantages of the early start is a must so that the foreign language learning process can achieve its objectives. In other words, the primary EFL teacher is one who shares the commitment to the objective of laying foundation for the learning process as well as contributing to a process of durable influences on the young learners (Page 1996; Harby and Metwaly 1995 and Britten 1988). This is simply because the primary EFL teacher is the main source of knowledge and skills to be acquired by young learners in most EFL contexts. Even with the foreign language learning process with all its modern equipment, mention Mostafa (1988) and Abdel Mawgoud (1988), the foreign language learners are aware that these are assets and that the main source from which they learn is the teacher.

The present research, therefore assumes that there is a lack of basic speaking skills in general and pronunciation skills in specific among most non-specialist primary EFL teachers in the Egyptian public schools at the same time in which a number of modern educators expressed the need to put more emphasis on speaking as one of the productive skills which can help pupils learn the language and use it for communication purposes (Cohi and Nesi, 1999 and Counihan, 1998). Many TEFL experts in Egypt have also pinpointed the same problem. Abou-Haggar (1994) conducted a study in which she stated that the shortage of EFL teachers led to the appointment of these non-specialists who had not received enough training in English . Though the Ministry of Education decided to requalify some non-specialist teachers in Helwan University of Egypt in 1993 / 1994, these teachers studied the same courses prescribed for the undergraduates in English sections. Abou-Haggar described this way of preparing these teachers as unacceptable. She reported that what was really needed was linguistic proficiency. She especially noticed that pronunciation mistakes and structure ones were the most common among the non-specialist EFL teachers. Consequently, she interviewed a sample of these teachers to recognize their most important and urgent needs. For them, priority was given to pronunciation and then came grammar, conversation, translation, methods of teaching and finally educational courses. Her study concluded that 89% of her sample indicated their dire need for training in pronunciation skills.

In a similar way, Salem (1988) conducted a study to upgrade the proficiency level of the non-specialist preperatory school EFL teachers. He reported that these teachers are in need for effective in-service training which aims at upgrading their proficiency levels. Some of the objectives of the study was identifying the needs of the non-specialist EFL teachers at the preperatopry stage as well as evaluating the language course on the program “Learning to Teach” which was held in Tanta Training Center in Egypt. The study concluded that the mistakes considered were grammatical ones, but if pronunciation mistakes were to be added, we would realize the urgent need for a solution to the problem of non-specialist EFL teachers’ proficiency level.

Attempting to improve the speaking skills of the non-specialist preperatory school English teachers to help them communicate in the classroom, Gaafar (1982) developed a training program, which included listening comprehension, pronunciation, language function and classroom communication. The program effectiveness was measured through the administration of an evaluative system by a jury of specialists, but no experiment was carried out to test the program validity.

The primary TEFL teachers in Egypt: what can be done for them?
The present study however, is intended to provide a remedial program concerning the pronunciation skills of the primary school EFL teachers. Although some researchers criticize the segmental pronunciation approach to be used in developing second language learners’ pronunciation skills (Celce-Murcia et.al 1996 and Firth 1992) and support more prosodic aspects of pronunciation, the approach adopted in this project was mainly a segmental one. This is due to the nature of the role of the primary EFL teacher as a model of producing the foreign language on the one hand and the nature of the material used where vowel/consonant articulation and minimal pair samples are found on the other hand. In other words, these teachers need to have a basic understanding of how the pronunciation system in the English language works in order to be able to teach the materials prescribed by the Ministry of Education. On the other hand, fluency and comprehensibility by native speakers, as seen by prosodic approach advocates, are not the major concern in this project , but rather the ability to present and model English pronunciation features correctly even at a slower rate.
However, the question of how educational expertise is successfully transferred and acquired has been a dominating one. That is why there has been an overlap in the terms used such as teacher training, teacher development and teacher education. Some educators use these terms synonymously while others try to draw a clear distinction between them. Patrick (1992) suggests that both education and training are concerned with encouraging the development of new skills and knowledge. However, the aim of education has been viewed traditionally as broader than that of training. Wallace (1991) uses the term education and training synonymously, but he differentiates between teacher training (or education) and teacher development. He points out that “training … is something that can be presented or managed by others whereas development is something that can be done by and for oneself. ” In a similar way, Mostafa (1988) contends that training is generally concerned with novice teachers who have little or no previous teaching experience whereas development is applied to the experienced teachers in order to develop their inner self-awareness. According to the present research, teacher training may be concerned with conveying new skills or knowledge to teachers while teacher development is a kind of retraining teachers in further use or exploitation of already existing skills or knowledge in order to achieve further objectives. This research also assumes that both teacher training and teacher development rotates round the concept of teacher education.In his book, Training Foreign Language Teachers, Wallace (1991) sheds light on three basic models of teacher training. These are the Craft model, the Applied Science model and the Reflective model. In what follows, the three models will be exposed in turn.

The Craft Model
The craft model has been the most dominating one till the middle of the twentieth century (Stones and Morris 1972). This model depends on the well-experienced master trainer who demonstrates different techniques and methods hoping that these techniques and methods will be acquired by the trainees. This model, therefore, gives a rather due care to the experiential knowledge presented through the master trainer as seen in figure (1) below.

Yet, the craft model has been criticized as being very conservative and applicable in static societies kept away from explosion of scientific knowledge which rarely exist in contemporary life (Stones and Morris 1972). Besides, it turns to be a pure invitation of the presentation demonstrated by the master trainer.

The Applied Science Model
The Applied Science model, also called Technical Rationality (Schon1983), is derived from the recent achievements of empirical science. The model depends on relating the most recent and appropriate means to the desired objectives. Trainees, therefore, are exposed to what has been found out as scientific knowledge and experimentation in a certain area. So, teaching problems can be solved by the desired objectives (Wallace 1991).

On the other hand, many practitioners assume that the applied science model has faulted to achieve what it claims. This could be due to the separation between theoretical research and the value of the teacher’s classroom expertise.

The Reflective Model
The Reflective model represents a combination of the teacher’s classroom expertise and the recent scientific findings. In this model, the idea of professional knowledge is presented. This idea refers to two different kinds of knowledge which should be mastered by every EFL teacher and should, therefore, be included in teacher education programs. The first one specifies that FL teachers should have a good grasp of linguistic areas like pronunciation, intonation, and grammatical hierarchy. They should also have a good grasp of things like evaluation, validity and reliability. Wallace (1991) calls this kind of knowledge received knowledge. He justifies this by saying that a trainee has been receiving it rather than experiencing it. Besides, it is a deliberate echo of the phrase “received wisdom”. The second kind of professional knowledge is experiential knowledge. This experiential knowledge emerges from two phenomena, which are knowing–in–action and reflection. The former refers to the day to day judgements, skills and interactions which the teacher carries out. The later is a natural activity that every teacher should reflect upon the quality of his professional performance. The following figure represents the reflective model as follows:

To the mind of the researcher, it would sound acceptable to think not only of the questions of how and when the training program should be carried out, but it is also of equal importance to take into consideration the question of what to train them in, that is, the actual needs of the trainees. In other words, the trainees participating in a training program do have a number of needs that should be satisfied be they organizational or individual development areas (Rae 1997; Altun 1993 and Golebiowska 1985). Sandholtz (2002) explains that many in-service training programs often produce results in opposition to their primary goals because these programs are based on what adminstrators and experts think rather than what the trainees need. The suggested program in the present study, therefore, is intended as a remedial program built on the results of the study tools as well as the viewpoints of some EFL experts in the target context as documented by Abou Haggar (1994) Salem (1988) Gafar (1988) and Armanious (1979).

Methodology
This research work is intended to answer the following questions:
1-What are the basic pronunciation skills needed for every primary school EFL teacher?
2-How far is a suggested program effective in developing the basic pronunciation skills of non-specialist primary school EFL teachers?
3-How far is the suggested program effective in developing the basic pronunciation skills of the primary EFL teachers in regard to their original area of specialty?

Sample
The sample of the study included 65 non-specialist primary school EFL teachers. They were selected on the basis of their years of experience in teaching (2:3 years). They graduated from Philosophy department, Geography department and Sociology department. The sample was distributed as follows:

The pronunciation Test
The present study included a pronunciation test designed and administered by the researcher to measure basic pronunciation skills among non-specialist primary EFL teachers. This test was used as a pre-post test. The skills involved in the test were selected in the light of two dimensions. The first one is pertinent literature in which these skills are looked at as basic pronunciation skills needed for every English learner while the second was a questionnaire in which the researcher consulted a jury of EFL experts. They were asked to rate a list of pronunciation skills according to their importance to primary school teachers. Based on the pertinent literature and the questionnaire results, the suggested in-service training program (see Appendix I) was developed.

Pre-testing of the Sample
Comparisons among the individuals of the sample were made on the basis of their original area of specialty. The data was collected in the light of their performance in the pre-testing. T-test was used to investigate the trainees’ original area of speciality on their pre-test scores. The following tables illustrate the mean scores of the sample according to their specialities.

Based on tables 2, 3 and 4 the researcher would assume that there were no significant differences among the sample individuals. This means that the original area of specialty of the sample individuals made no difference in the mean scores of the pre-test and that the individuals of the sample were statistically equivalent.

The Suggested Program
The program was designed mainly to help non-specialist primary school EFL teachers with the area of English speaking skills through providing them with a remedial element to their pronunciation incompetence ( see Appendix I). This, the researcher thinks, can be a practical contribution to the idea of teacher’s intelligibility which is essential to the EFL teacher’s role as a good model of the target language otherwise he/she is going to be cut off from the language he/she is teaching. Therefore, the program’s broad goal is to upgrade non-specialist primary school English teachers’ pronunciation skills by introducing them to some articulatory and acoustic features of the English sound system and by giving them the opportunity to practice the pronunciation features. The content of the program was based on the findings of the questionnire in which the opinion of a number of EFL professors at some Faculties of Education and EFL supervisors at the Egyptian Ministry of Education in naming and ordering urgent pronunciation skills needed for non-specialist primary school EFL teacher were investigated. However, The program was planned to be completed in five weeks time. Two sessions were given each week on the basis of two hours a session. Recordings corresponding the content of the current program had been tapped by the researcher and a number of his colleagues. The tape contained the drills that would help the trainees with the target skills.

Results and Discussion
The data obtained was subject to some statistical treatments in order to determine the effectiveness of the program in achieving the study objectives. T-test was used to investigate the rate of progress of the study sample. Also comparisons between the individuals of the sample on the basis of their original area of specialty, that is, the university department from which they graduated were carried out. On the other hand, Blacke’s Modified Gain Ratio was also used to determine the effectiveness of the program. To verify the effectiveness of the first question of the study, the researcher used Blacke’s Modified Gain Ratio (Bachman 1971) as seen in table 5.

In fact, table 5 indicates that the program had a positive impact on the trainees’ speaking skills. This result is consistent with Abou-Haggar’s (1994) and Salem’s (1988) studies which revealed that a great number of non-specialist EFL teachers reported their need for in-service programs which cater for their needs.

Furthermore, t-values of the pre–post testing of the whole group in every sub-skill involved in the suggested program is explained in table 6 below. T-values were obtained by using the formula of significant differences among correlated means (EL Sherbieny 1995).

Based on the results presented in table 6, this study claims that certain development has taken place with regard to the trainees’ pronunciation sub-skills. This was reflected in the differences in the mean score of the whole group in the pre-test and the post test. This is also consistent with Harby’s (1995) study in which he concluded that opportunities must be provided by in-service training to act as a remedial process through which major problems for working teachers could be dealt with. In addition, comparisons between the individuals of the study sample were undertaken on the basis of their original speciality and their mean scores in both the pre-test and the post test as shown in the tables below.

Based on tables 7, 8 and 9, certain progress has affected the performance of the trainees regardless of their original speciality be it philosophy, geography or sociology. Therefore, it may be said here that the sample’s original area of specialty had nothing to do with the performance in both pre-test and post- test.

Conclusion
Though non-specialist EFL teachers stand as a major challenge for the EFL process in Egypt, they could improve their language skills involved when convenient training opportunities that appeal to their real needs are provided. Moreover, this research assumes that since the suggested program was an effective one, more opportunities should be provided for these teachers who, as indicated in many places in the study, were very enthusiastic to improve their proficiency level.

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Appendix I

A Descriptive Overview of the Program

The program was designed mainly to help non-specialist primary school EFL teachers with the area of English pronunciation through providing them with a remedial element to their pronunciation incompetence. This, the researcher thinks, can be a real contribution to the idea of teacher’s intelligibility which is essential to the EFL teacher’s role as a good model of the target language otherwise he/she is going to be cut off from the language he/she is teaching. Therefore the present program’s broad goal is to upgrade non-specialist primary school English teachers’ pronunciation skills by introducing them to some articulatory and acoustic features of the English sound system and by giving them the opportunity to practice the speaking skills.

Who is the Program for and Why?

In the light of the review of the pervious studies concerning non-specialist EFL teachers, which pointed out that those teachers are in bad need for in-service training, the current program was developed as an attempt to upgrade basic pronunciation skills of non-specialist primary school English teachers. It is noteworthy to say that the researcher was not overambitious to assign broader goals which might not be fulfilled in any one in-service training program but it was realistic to concentrate on certain and essential basic skills that can be upgraded during the program sessions.

The Program Broad Goal:

The Suggested program had a broad goal which is to introduce non-specialist primary school EFL teachers to the field of English phonetics and to train them in perceiving as well as producing some aspects of English segmentals and suprasegmentals. This can help them develop their pronunciation skills and consequently have an acceptable level of intelligibility, which will be acquired by their pupils later on.

The Program Objectives:

By the end of the program, non-specialist primary school EFL teachers are expected to:
1- identify the different organs of speech ,
2- describe any given English consonant according to place of articulation , manner of articulation and voicing ,
3- describe English vowels according to the highest point of the tongue in the mouth and lip rounding,
4- classify English sounds in regard to common articulatory features,
5- produce English consonants and vowels correctly ,
6- recognize and produce simple forms of word stress and sentence stress,
7- recognize and produce simple patterns of intonation ,that is, declarative intonation and question intonation ,
8- recognize and use simple word transcription ,
9- and give orthographic forms for phonetically transcribed words.

The Program Components:

The program was designed to cover the most essential and urgently needed pronunciation skills for primary school EFL teachers as determined by EFL experts as well as pertinent literature. So, the suggested program starts with an introductory unit, Unit One, which deals with the speech organs in the English sound system. This brief introduction gives the trainees a simple theoretical background about articulators in the English sound system and the way this system works. There is no tape unit corresponding to this introductory part. Following this is five units each of which has a corresponding tape unit.

As for Unit Two, it deals with English consonants .The lessons in Unit Two include an introduction to oral consonants and nasal ones. Then each pair of consonant sounds ,whether oral or nasal, are presented. After each pair of consonant sounds, three drills are given. The first drill is a listening drill where trainees listen to the sound in a number of words isolated from one another. The second drill is a repetition drill where trainees listen and repeat words that include the sound or sounds being presented. The third drill includes repetition of sentences, which include the same sound or sounds. Following this, the Practice part is presented. In this part, three exercises are included. The first one is a large number of minimal pairs and homophones, the second is a number tongue of twisters that deal with the sound or sounds to be studied and the third is sound practicing through English proverbs which also include the same sound or sounds to be studied. Eventually a Follow Up section follows the Practice one where a number of questions are to be answered by the trainees. In each Follow Up section, there is a passage, which contained a number of words including the sound to be studied.

In Unit Three, English cardinal vowels are dealt with. The lessons contain the way cardinal vowels are produced. Different drills, practice section, and follow up section are also included.
In the same way, Unit Four deals with English semi-vowels and diphthongs. Here a simple background and examples of semi- vowels and diphthongs are presented. The trainees are supposed to recognize the idea of semi-vowels and the way diphthongs are formed. No further complexities are needed at this point.

The final unit, Unit Five deals with stress and intonation. Different features are given to the trainees to help them mark word stress and then sentence stress. Regarding intonation, two patterns of intonation are presented, that is, declarative and question intonation. This serves the study objective to form a simple practical background for non-specialist EFL teachers.

Eventually, a list of transcription of almost all the words occurred in the primary student book “Hello ” is also included. This could help as a small pronouncing dictionary available to every trainee.

The Choice of the Program Components:

After a number of visits to English classes at four primary schools at the researcher’s district, the researcher developed a preliminary checklist to help him in sorting the English pronunciation problems of non-specialist primary EFL teachers. This helped in developing a questionnaire to consult a jury of EFL professors at Tanta University, Alexandria University and Minia University about the basic pronunciation skills needed for every primary school teacher. The material of the program was chosen in the light of the questionnaire results. After developing the suggested program, it was taken to a number of TEFL experts, a jury, to make sure that the program components do reflect the basic pronunciation skills included in the questionnaire.

About the author

Khaled El-Ebyary (K.M.Al-Ebyary@newcastle.ac.uk) is currently a second year PhD student at the Education and Applied

linguistics Department. He worked as an assistant lecturer in Alexandria University of Egypt. His major research interests are

teacher education, SL curriculum and CALL.