INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PHONETIC SYMBOLS INSTRUCTIONS ON PRONUNCIATION OF ESL LEARNERS

Abstract

Teaching pronunciation is considered as a difficult and challenging task in an ESL classroom. Students find it really difficult to pronounce words of English properly; this is because not much intention is paid to this aspect of language. Students try to pronounce the words as they read them. But pronunciation is not about the words, it is about the sounds. In this study students are taught pronunciation with the help of phonetic symbols. In phonetic transcription our whole focus is on sounds rather than words. The participants for this study were randomly selected from two Govt. Schools of Sialkot and their numbers was 40. The methodology used for the study was experimental technique. 20 students were included in control group (the group that didn’t receive any treatment) and 20 students were in experimental group (the group that received a treatment). A pre and post test was conducted to assess the improvement in their performance in pronunciation in ESL classroom. SPSS software was used for the analysis of data. Results showed a clear difference in the performance of students in pre and posttests, which proved that Phonetic symbols are highly effective in teaching pronunciation to students in ESL classroom.