The English Pronunciation Teaching: EFL Learners' and Teachers' Perspective

This study focuses on EFL learners’ and teachers’ perspectives of, pronunciation teaching, but also of pronunciation and accent in general, because of their importance and connection with pronunciation teaching in foreign language. The participants in the study were high school learners and teachers from Grammar school in Vinkovci, Croatia. The results have shown that the learners are keen on perfecting their pronunciation to sound as native-like as possible, but that they also do not really mind sounding foreign. When it came to pronunciation teaching, learners stated that they would prefer their teacher to speak with an American English accent, but would not mind her having a Croatian accent, as long as it did not make it hard for them to understand what she was saying. Almost half of the learners stated that they did not do pronunciation exercises for segments that differ from the sounds of the Croatian language in class. More than half (60%) of the learners do wish that they did the exercises. The results also show that the vast majority of learners think that the media has a greater effect on their pronunciation and accent than their teacher does. Teachers, on the other hand, expressed little interest in perfecting their pronunciation, and admitted that they did prioritize grammar and vocabulary over pronunciation when teaching.