LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:2 February 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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RIP RP: In Search of a More Pragmatic Model for Pronunciation
Teaching in the Indian Context

Anindya Syam Choudhury, Ph.D., PGCTE, PGDTE, CertTESOL (Trinity, London)

Abstract

With the growth in the use of English the world over, and a subsequent increase in the number of English speakers whose first language is not English, the pronunciation needs and goals of learners have undergone great changes. This is true of the Indian scenario as well, where the acquisition of ‘native-like’ pronunciation does not seem to be a hallowed aim any longer. What most learners are striving for is a kind of ‘neutral’ intelligible English pronunciation, free from those influences of their first language that hamper clarity when they speak English. However, when it comes to teaching pronunciation the Indian teacher willy-nilly has to follow the Received Pronunciation or R.P., a model which is waning in influence even in its birth place, England. One reason for this, of course, is that this variety is described well in various textbooks and pronouncing dictionaries. This paper would delve into and examine this dichotomous situation of the ‘model’ to follow in the Indian context, and drawing on research on pronunciation and pronunciation teaching would try to show why Standard Indian English Pronunciation (SIEP) could be considered a more viable model than RP.

Key words: Received Pronunciation (RP), Standard Indian English Pronunciation (SIEP), model, intelligibility, native speaker, non-native speaker

With the exponential spread and growth of English in the last several decades, leading to the development of Englishes in different sociolinguistic situations across the world, several hitherto-considered givens in teaching in English as Second Language (ESL)/ English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts have been questioned and debated upon. One such question pertains to the issue of the so-called ‘native speaker’ pronunciation norms in the ESL/EFL contexts. In the Indian context, there has been an insistence on the persistent use of Received Pronunciation (RP) as the norm despite there being numerous reasons for not remaining tied to it. This paper, prompted mainly by the reaction of a friend of mine, an English teacher in an Indian university, who not only turned his nose up at my suggestion that a pronunciation model based on the proficient Indian English user could be a possibility in the Indian classroom but also belligerently dismissed any attempts to dent the image of the hallowed RP, would essentially deal with the following two issues:

1. The model of English pronunciation which could/should be presented to English language learners in the Indian context in general.

2. The implications of the choice of the model mentioned above.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Anindya Syam Choudhury
Ph D (MJPRU), PGCTE, PGDTE (EFLU), CertTESOL (Trinity College London)
Department of English
Assam University
Silchar 788011
Assam
India
anindyasyam@yahoo.com
anindyasyamchoudhury@gmail.com
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