“EFL Teachers don´t stop to Teach Pronunciation”: an interpretation of Learner Beliefs on Pronunciation Learning at an English Teacher Preparation Programme

Resumen

There is little information about learner beliefs concerning pronunciation (henceforth PR) in FL (foreign language) learning contexts (Toyama, 2015), even more so in specific environments such as teacher preparation programs. Ellis (2008) suggests the need for teachers to find out about learners´ beliefs, to become aware of and evaluate them, as beliefs influence the actions undertaken by students. In the present study, first-year students were asked to write personal narratives regarding their journey through the subject “English Phonetics & Phonology I”. Data were approached using the narrative methodology. Findings entail the novelty implied in PR-related matters (mainly phonetic transcription) and the shortness of the academic term as major learning obstacles. Rehabilitation of fossilized pronunciations, a recurrent topic in most stories, was viewed as a positive issue of PR learning by participants. The likely connection between these findings and the fact that PR teaching is overlooked in several EFL courses around the world (Gilbert, 2010) is discussed. Finally, a course of action is suggested to attempt to revert the marginalized situation of PR in the ELT field as a long-term goal. The aim of the paper is to find out about learners´ beliefs regarding PR learning by interpreting students´ personal narratives.