Does Pronunciation Instruction Make Any Sense? EFL Learners and Teachers’ Beliefs

Pronunciation has been regarded as a neglected language skill and there is a lack of research on the nature of pronunciation instruction in the literature. Thus, this paper presents the findings of a survey which investigates a) EFL learners and teachers’ beliefs about the significance of correct pronunciation and its relation to other language skills, b) their preferences for explicit or implicit pronunciation instruction and whether background variables such as age or language level have an effect on these stakeholders’ views about pronunciation instruction. The study also examines whether beliefs about pronunciation instruction influence learners’ communicative competency and performance. In order to collect data, a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire consisting of 54 items about related areas was administered to EFL learners (N=642) and teachers (N=42) following its reliability analyses. The findings revealed that EFL learners and teachers have a tendency towards implicit pronunciation instruction whereas their preferences are not totally in the similar vein. The study provides further data and evidence from the perspective of English language teachers and learners for the discussion of the effective way of pronunciation instruction.