Pronunciation teaching in tertiary EFL classes: Vietnamese Teachers’ beliefs and practices

Abstract

Recent research in English as a second language (ESL) contexts has shown pronunciation teaching to be undervalued and often overlooked both in published textbooks and teachers’ classroom practice, despite growing research evidence for the efficacy of appropriately structured pronunciation teaching. The current study extends research on this topic into an English as a foreign language (EFL) context where it has hitherto been underexamined, namely tertiary EFL in Vietnam. The study investigates the beliefs and pronunciation teaching practices of six EFL teachers at a Vietnamese university. Data includes nonparticipant observations and video-recordings of twelve 45-minute EFL lessons taught by these teachers. Classroom observations were followed-up by individual interviews involving stimulated recall and general questions about beliefs and perspectives concerning pronunciation teaching. Interviews were transcribed and translated into English for content-based analysis. The results show that the teachers’ pronunciation teaching was typically unplanned and reactive, involving corrective feedback through recasts and/or prompts in response to learners’ pronunciation errors of segmental features. The study also shows that the teachers lacked initial training and professional learning opportunities in pronunciation pedagogy and that contextual factors appeared to constrain their pronunciation teaching.