Rightside-up Pronunciation for the Japanese Preparing Top-down Communicative Lessons

Page No.: 
39
Writer(s): 
Daniel W. Evans, Center for International Programs, Saint Michael's College

Most teachers think about and attempt to teach pronunciation in an "upsidedown"
manner, that is, beginning with and placing most emphasis on those
aspects which often affect intelligibility the least: the phonetic segments. This
article introduces another way of conceptualizing pronunciation-a top-down
approach-which places most emphasis on upper-level, suprasegmental aspects.
Examples of both skill-specific and integrative activities for developing
these upper-level pronunciation skills within the framework of communicative
language teaching are included.

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