Andreas Stuebinger, Germany
I used to think that pronunciation is one of the most important factors in language teaching and to some extent I do still think so. However, one should not over- exaggerate it as some people do, especially phonetics teachers who force students to write down IPA symbols for hours which I do not think has a high value. I think it would be much more valuable to send the students abroad, i.e. to an English-speaking country, for at least one year compulsory. I think that this would help much more in this respect than learning symbols who are too abstract for most of the students. Besides, and probably unfortunately, in recent years there seems to be a tendency towards high tolerance of foreign pronunciations among native speakers of English. The native speaker you encounter in Britain will usually understand what you are saying as soon as you can get the pronunciation as 'good' as it doesn't change the meaning of what you intend to say and he will not comment or even criticize the pronunciation of foreigners. I myself was once in Dublin together with a friend of dropped English just after 5 years at school and had never used it afterwards. In a pub one evening me encountered and Irish language teacher, i.e. Irish Gaelic, and she even said that she preferred the (bad) English of my friend to my sort of Estuary English, because I sounded to British whereas my friend's German English was referred to as 'cute'. So there even seems to be a tendency amongst native speakers to expect a foreign-sounding English from foreigners, as soon as they can still understand it, of course. Besides, I think that modern media make it even more difficult for learners of English to focus just on one accent. Whereas in the past you had to go abroad and usually adopted the pronunciation of that region you went to, it is now usually the case that students of English see one film in RP, followed by a movie in some sort of American English and so on and so forth, thus many speakers are uncertain of what to adopt to their own pronunciation and what not. So in the end it gets all mixed up or the speaker decides not to take over an accent at all and sticks with his own - foreign - accent. Which in turn could even be perfectly okay as long as it is understood by native speakers, although it may sound very odd indeed to his fellow students of English and of course to his teachers. In fact, non-native speaking teachers seem to be more critical of pronunciation than native speakers are. All in all, I think that pronunciation is still an important issues yet I do not know to what extent and I refuse to say that it is the most important one. The most important issue should still be to teach an English that can easily be understood by native speakers - otherwise there could be pupils who have a great pronunciation, but a huge lack of vocabulary and an inability to produce grammatically correct sentences.

S. Iyyappan, India
It is obvious that when pronunciation is not refined, the speaker may not be understood by the listener. When it is fine-tuned, certainly the accent could be followed by the listener.

Kalpesh Vekaria
Yes, I think that pronunciation is a very important part of of English. It would help in enhancing pronunciation skills and avoid unnecessary embarrassment.

Bojana Pavlovic, China
As a teacher of English, I think pronunciation is important, but that prefect pronunciation is, definitely not something teachers should insist on. Both pronunciation and stress can influence the meaning up to some point; in that sense, they are important.

Anu, India
I do think that pronunciation is a very important part of of English as the right pronunciation is the base of correct meaning of word as well as correct writing. So from birth itself child has to be taught to speak correct pronunciation.

Rineta, Kosovo / Belgium
Pronunciation is very important because we have to communicate by it.

John, India
It is very essential that students be taught pronunciation from a lower level because the habits formed at that level have a lasting effect on our speech. Thus if phonetics is taught at the primary to junior level, it would help in enhancing pronunciation skills and avoid unnecessary embarrassment.

Donny Qiu, Indonesia
Yes, of course. I put it as a first matter when I'm introducing a new word to my students. That's very important indeed since they are going to use it more after that. When they speak it right, it makes them be more confident when they are speaking. Although it is the very basic but it is still a good thing to deal when you are teaching any level of students.

Seungyeon Lee, USA
Whatever you start with as a beginner, I think it will eventually come down to pronunciation to be a more fluent and effective speaker of ESL.

Yogesh Singla
I think pronunciation is to be given priority. Primary aim of any language is to communicate the thoughts and without correct pronunciation one would miserably fail doing so. 'I scream' may be taken as 'Ice-cream'.

Arsala, Afghanistan
I think that teaching the language and pronunciation should work together.These subjects are very important for teaching, writing, reading and speaking.

Z Moustafa, UK
In as far as pronunciation and stress can affect meaning, I think it is essential. Receptively, without an understanding of how pronunciation in connected speech differs from the written word, learners find it difficult to recognise what they may already know.

M. Fahad Ayub, Pakistan
A language without proper pronunciation is just like a lock having an improper key, an un-indexed book/library, A way without a light.

Ali Belhadj, Algeria
Learning English without a good pronunciation is nonsense. Therefore, special attention should be given to phonetics at all levels of English teaching.

Aicha, Morocco
I think it needs correcting, but how important is it to try to correct, for example, French students who drop their h's when it's more important that they be able to order a sentence correctly? I think that in most cases pronunciation is fine tuning, but should not overshadow more basic problems.

E. Akilan, India
I do feel that teaching right pronunciation should be a priority for all English teachers. The English alphabets do not represent a uniform sound pattern. For example, the words 'mould', 'should', 'ground', 'rough', 'cough', 'tour' etc. have the letters 'ou' when they are spelt. But these letters do not represent the same sounds. I think if these words are mispronounced , it may lead to misunderstanding of meaning. So, it is a basic need that a learner of English should be familiarised with the pronunciation pattern from the very beginning of his English language-learning-career.

Shanti Rao, India
I do you think teaching pronunciation should be a priority because language is primarily a means of communication and this communication should be understood by all. If one don't strive for a common pronunciation one runs the risk of not being understood by the target audience. English, especially , is a language that needs its learners to be taught pronunciation as it is so illogical and un phonetic. In India the influence of the mother tongue ( or rather the various native tongues ) is very strong and unless pronunciation is taught a native speaker might very well think he is hearing a foreign language.

Asli, Turkey
I believe that teaching the language and pronunciation should work together. When I was a student, I got that sort of course. Now I am a teacher, I try to be careful as much as I can with my pronunciation.

Eva Szauter, Hungary, Budapest
I think, teaching pronunciation is crucial since this is the main source of understanding. If people cannot utter the correct version of a word/expression then they are not able to communicate properly. It would lead to difficulties.

Ben Hui, Hong Kong, China
I do believe good pronunciation can help to recognize any vocabularies according to the right sound. To my experiences, I used to spend a vocabulary according to the sound in my mind.

Santiago Aguirre, Mexico
I think pronunciation teaching must be encouraged at all levels of English despite all the negative attitudes.

Canice, Italy
Spoken English is different from written. Pronunciation must be taught, just like grammar and vocab. Where teachers are unable (because they've never learned themselves) or neglect to do this, their students won't understand spoken English and will try to avoid speaking situations. This restricts communication and learning. Teachers should learn how to teach pronunciation.

Suzie, England
There are some good books on the theory of pronunciation such as Seidlhofer and Dalton and Adam Brown. Good practise books are a) Hancock and b) Hewings. These might help your studies

lwai Kamil, Sudan
Indeed of course because English language basically depends on pronunciation to convey its message rather than any other language in the world and sometimes it causes serious misunderstandings. So it's the language of special and unique kind.

Diane Tan, Malaysia
In my opinion, I feel it should be a high priority. Nothing is worse when you hear words pronounced wrongly especially by native speakers! Definitely a high priority as far as I'm concerned.

Hugo Baracho, Brazil
I feel I must cry out against those who believe learners should have impeccable pronunciation as they themselves often fail (or sometimes can't be bothered)to speak a foreign languages properly when working overseas. I have no quarrel with Brazilian students who are happy with the way they sound in English without the urge of turning themselves into Americans or British.Their main concern has always been the need to be reasonably understood and able to get their message across effectively and i think they've been successful at it without a top-notch accent. It can be really off-putting for learners this type of accent purism sometimes.

Doney, Myanmar
Pronunciation is very important for all, because we have to communicate by it.

Munkhbileg, Mongolia
I think this is very important when learning any foreign language. For the language is completely different from the language they speak. So think this idea of teaching pronunciation is the best way to make students enjoy learning languages.

Robert , China
Of course, teaching pronunciation is important, because learning pronunciation and speaking by easily being understood is important. Maybe, someone else will say "Grammar is more important", that's also right, but it cannot be a reason of ignoring pronunciation. I think we need to change the topic to be: how to teach pronunciation, or in which way students can enjoy the progress of learning pronunciation. That's my opinion.

Patricia Acosta, Argentina
I consider the teaching of pronunciation a big issue in our EFL everyday work. I think all teachers should pay attention to this aspect of language. It is worth doing it. There's a lot of material to work with at different levels. Definitely it IS a topic worth studying.

Ricardo J Palma, Argentina
Not all our students have a natural flair or knack for languages or the ease for oral imitation. However structured their oral production may be, they feel at a loss when not understood by a native speaker, due to pronunciation inadequacies: from isolated phonemes (which may be worked by pragmatic and contextual cues)to supra segmental aspects (like an inappropriate intonation use, etc.)The earlier we start teaching our students (formally or less formally)most of the aspects of pronunciation which affect intelligibility, the better results we may obtain.The great paradox is that, in the end, we end up giving higher marks to students with an appropriate oral proficiency, don´t we?

Lenka Jaskova, Czech Republic
I myself consider teaching pronunciation one of the crucial things for mastering English as a second language. I´m a little obsessed with teaching pronunciation in my lessons. One of the reasons for that is that in my teaching career I have met with lots of mispronounced English words and it was due to only two factors - either not teaching pronunciation at all or teaching it incorrectly. And yet there are now so many sources English teachers can use in their lessons. If there is anybody who thinks differently, then he/she should think again about his/her position as a language teacher.

Anthony Clark, Switzerland
Pronunciation should be a high priority in the first hundred hours of a programme where speaking is an objective. Phonemic transcription must be used as a help for correct pronunciation unless there are strong reasons not to. It is important to distinguish between a foreign accent and a mistake. If a French speaker says 'manie' for money, that's an accent. If they say Manet, or Monet, it's a mistake.

Olushola Are, Nigeria
In the global village we are today,international intelligibility is of great importance. Pronunciation plays a big role in achieving this. However,teachers in L2 situations must learn to isolate ONLY those features of learners speech that directly impact negatively on intelligibility, and encourage learners to correct such. It is the general 'Queens-English-only' approach that puts people off so much, and of course it's not really worth pursuing. Have you observed that even the BBC now knows this?

Kristin, Switzerland
You can't teach grammar and listening without teaching pronunciation. My students love doing pronunciation, because it is something that improves very quickly. I love these books: Teaching Pronunciation and Pronunciation Games.

India
I think pronunciation is important. If a person is unable to pronounce words, then it is very likely he will find it extremely difficult to spell and to write let alone speak.

Christel, Germany
Pronunciation is part of understanding and essential for communication. If people are not able to pronounce words properly they run the risk of not being understood.

Mommo, Morocco
Just a remark about Ameen's "sinking submarine". Context gives us valuable information about how to interpret utterances however mispronounced they may be.

Fateh , Algiers
For me teaching English without paying attention to the important role of pronunciation, is to prepare diner without the onions.

Samir, Kosovo
I do not agree with those who say pronunciation is not important. On the contrary it is very important. Verbal communication is the most frequent communication.

Ana, Serbia
Just as the first impression of a person is established by his appearance, the first sounds that one utters contribute to the impression. One can tell a lot about a person upon hearing the person speak. Learning the pronunciation (and teaching it) is of the most relevance because it's directly linked to the proper way of language acquisition.

Maria Jose Boga, Argentina
I believe students should be made aware of those sounds which are not used in their mother tongue first, which are those sounds that could cause comprehension problems. I agree pronunciation is the first impression listeners get from us, so we should work on pronunciation in a fun and relaxed way, to avoid speaking with a thick foreign accent and, mainly, to be understood. We must not forget that it is impossible to do away with our native pronunciation unless there´s plenty of practice, so I think we should focus on the two areas I mentioned above.

Camelia Santa, Romania
I think pronunciation is very important because the Ss have to learn English correctly. Not only for avoiding confusion, but also for keeping the language accurate. If they start to talk by pronouncing it badly, their children might do that worse and in 50 years we might have one more old English language.

Gabriella, Italy
I think that pronunciation is highly important. The sooner is taught the better. It's very difficult to learn the 'right' (between inverted comas because, as everybody knows, there are various nuances) pronunciation of a word when you've acquired it wrong. Different sounds produce different words and comprehension can go easily awry!Is it so difficult for the French or the Italians to pronounce the "h"? I don't think so... and even if it is one should try hard. In my opinion it's a matter of laziness and sloppiness, firstly on the part of the teacher and then on the part of the student when left alone to learn. Besides, I don't se why pronunciation cannot be taught from the very beginning. Is there anyone who can provide a reasonable answer to that?

Elkins, Sri Lanka
Would your colleagues accept, if you teach Amharic with a wrong pronunciation? I don't think so. Learning the right pronunciation should start from the very beginning. It is hard to mend things what you have learnt wrong. Your ethnic background may influence your accent, but not the pronunciation

Sue Olive, UK
Inaccurate pronunciation by English language learners adversely affects listeners' understanding MUCH MORE than inaccurate use of vocabulary, grammar or style. Learners also have massive problems understanding natural speech from native speakers or competent speakers if those learners do not have enough listening practice in lessons or are not encouraged to use English language videos/DVDs, TV or radio stations, listen to songs or just chat to people!

Jacqueline, the Netherlands
Pronunciation is very important. It can make a speaker feel more confident. He may sound better than he actually is. The sound is the first thing that is perceived by a listener. (compare s.b.'s looks) In the second instance the contents becomes important. I'd rather listen to a simple text (with grammatical mistakes) that is pronounced accurately than to a complicated story with a very thick (foreign) accent.

Lakshmi, India
I don't think pronunciation is as important as the structure. The question of pronunciation comes in only when the language is taught at a higher level. For beginners it is enough if the learner is taught to mouth the words clearly and audibly so that the listener is able to comprehend the gist of what is being said.

Diala, Lebanon
We need to differentiate between the pronunciation and the accent. While the first is important to stress on because it is as vital as the spelling of the vocabulary, the latter is often influenced by L1- and, in my view, accent is not a priority as long as the pronunciation of the word is as close as possible to a native-speaker's pronunciation.

Simon,Taiwan
Teaching it naturally without pressure, but with a lot of fun will be fine.

Alison, Mexico / Italy
Correct pronunciation makes sense out of nonsense!!!

Jennifer, Canada
When pronunciation causes comprehension problems (as noted by David, USA) then I think it needs correcting, but how important is it to try to correct, for example, French students who drop their h's when it's more important that they be able to order a sentence correctly? I think that in most cases pronunciation is fine tuning, but should not overshadow more basic problems.

Uzma Adnan, Pakistan
I think pronunciation is a priority in learning English. A good pronunciation brings you closer to the native accent of English. A good pronunciation provides a speaker with confidence to communicate.

Slavka, Slovakia
It is true that students cannot easily master native-like pronunciation, nevertheless, correct pronunciation makes communication easier and spares students embarrassment of being misunderstood or not understood because of the wrong way of pronouncing.
The other issue is complicated sounds such as th (in think, though)for e.g. Slovak learners...can we help them to pronounce it correctly? I think so.

Ashraf, Pakistan
Learning a foreign language or second language normally aims at acquiring proficiency in communicative skills and without having mastery in this aspect one is bound to feel handicapped in communication as in most of the cases it is the pronunciation and more particularly the stress system of a language that determines what one intends to say.

Andrew, Brazil
Over the last few years there has been a tendency to give priority to "communication" English; in other words, it doesn't matter very much how you pronounce something as long as you are understood. While this may apply to visitors to English speaking countries, I don't believe this is valid for learners of English. Quite the contrary, communication improves as you improve your pronunciation as the chances of being misunderstood are substantially lowered

Saketa Jigi, Ethiopia
I think pronunciation should be priority as fluency in the language is vital to learners.

Saketa Jigi, Ethiopia
Pronunciation is a highly priority as particularly Learners of English as a Foreign (EFL) Language face handicaps or challenges in pronouncing English words appropriately.

Eva Rojo, Spain
It is very sad to see how teaching pronunciation is totally neglected here. I even have colleagues who have not the faintest clue about pronouncing English correctly. No wonder our students are the worst English learners in Europe!

Guida, Mozambique
I think pronunciation is essential,because it gives the students more knowledge and confidence when they communicate with others. Especially for students that are not native speakers in this language.

Irin Evans, Spain
In Britain alone there are thousands of accents ranging from Welsh to Hindu and the pronunciation can often differ greatly. English with an accent is normal and sometimes the stress on Received Pronunciation is too great. Don't forget that vowel sounds in Australia are very different from Scotland. Russian speakers will find it very difficult to reproduce some of the more complex vowel sounds of English (they have only ten)and speakers of Spanish, who only have five vowel sounds, almost impossible. I am so accustomed to hearing the variations of English that I accept accents as normal. I believe that more importance should be placed on rhythm than on pronunciation.

Hossein Sakhaei, Iran
I think you and me are in the same boat. My suggestion is tell those who oppose you how you feel when a foreigner speaks your native language with wrong pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation. Pronunciation has absolutely a considerable effect on the way the communication is created.

Frank Cooke, Thailand
My students get a great deal of fun getting their pronunciation as near as possible. E.g. " We always eat in the chicken", because kitchen and chicken are often mispronounced by the Thai teachers.

Devon Lin, China
I think pronunciation is important to the point that the students needs to be understood. I, for example, am learning Chinese and I don't have the best pronunciation but I generally have no difficulty being understood. I am content with that, whereas my husband is more precise because precision is more important to him. So once a student is understandable then they must determine what degree of 'perfection' they want or need.

David, England
Pronunciation is absolutely vital, there simply is nothing more important in my opinion and it goes hand in hand with fluency. Until you have a good grasp of pronunciation you cannot be expected to be accepted as a native speaker if you take the language further.

Paola Zappa, Italy
Have you ever listened to an Italian person speaking English without him/her having ever been taught proper pron??? I am a self-employed teacher and my fight against the awful pronunciation my students pick up at school is endless. It's not a question of producing a perfect Oxbridge accent but I personally think that a language (any language) should be spoken, and taught, as correctly as it is possibly achievable with respect to all its aspects, pron included.

Chris, Indonesia
Pronunciation is clearly a vital part of language learning, the question is what the target should be. I think many teachers and students get bogged down by regional differences and ignore the reasonable target of mutual intelligibility.
I'd like to make a second point on this subject. It's been my experience that pronunciation is seriously undervalued and under taught in the schools I have worked in largely due to the lack of knowledge and training among teachers. Sadly, I have worked among so called teaching professionals who have never heard of the IPA. For these teachers, teaching pronunciation takes the form of repetitive drills above all. Give a student a fish . . .

Raimundo L. Santos, Brazil
I think that pronunciation is a must in any language. However, in English it's indeed even more important to pronounce the words correctly, as the English phonetics is not accurate and as other languages. If you don't have a good, clear pronunciation you might get yourself into troubles when communicating. As a teacher, I usually try to emphasize this skill with my students.

Wang Jianxun, China
To primary learners, pronunciation plays a very important role because only they can read and speak, they can memorize what they have learnt.

Thomas, Australia
I introduce my students to phonemic script as early as possible.

Anura, Sri Lanka
When we learn a language, we have to concentrate on its linguistic structure; Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics. Everybody starts to use a language by articulating the sound pertaining to each. According to the variation of articulation each language takes its identity. If we do not concentrate on sound (pronunciation) we will loose the real identity of particular language. Therefore, it is a must to teach and learn the correct pronunciation.

Rosana, Argentina
Pronunciation is vital to English. In order to communicate effectively, EFL students must learn through experience how to produce some typical sounds, which are not present in their mother tongue. Awareness on pronunciation not only does bring about a comprehensible output but also leads to better listening comprehension.

Nina Hajnal, UK
Pronunciation is not just about sounds and sound contrasts. Correct word stress is almost more important in promoting intelligibility, and sentence stress shows us what word/idea is important to the speaker. Intonation can tell us about a speaker's attitude, among other things.

Unless English is learnt purely for the purpose of getting information from printed materials (e.g. car maintenance manuals), pronunciation in this wider sense would seem to be a priority.

There are several forms of spoken English, e.g. US, UK, Australian, South African, Canadian, Indian etc., and the type of pronunciation taught should be the one that would be most helpful to the learner.

Ameen , Saudi Arabia
An operator who works in a submarine is receiving an emergency call:
P1: We are sinking , WE ARE SINKING
P2: What are you sinking about ?

So if the message is not sent in its correct way, the communication might be broken.

Mommo, Morocco
As long as it does not hinder communication, pronunciation should not, I think, be a high priority. In this global world where people from various and different language backgrounds are learning English, it would be far too ambitious from the part of teachers to expect learners to have a near-native pronunciation.

Travers
As a citizen of the UK I am constantly dismayed at the lack of attention paid to the correct pronunciation of the English language. We have pressure from our US cousins and a general sloppiness in every day communications. Some of my students complain that they find it quite hard to find someone who pronounces English words in a way that they can readily understand. I wonder why!

Italy
I think that pronunciation is the only possibility we have to make a language intelligible, there are in fact millions of people who speak English with strange pronunciation and sometimes they are not understood at all, on the contrary I do think that it is important and culturally significant to keep the different accents (French,Italian German etc.)they really give the idea of the vastity and importance of every language.

Sari, Finland
As Finnish is pronounced the same way it is written, it is essential the Finnish students learn the right pronunciation Otherwise their spoken English would be totally incomprehensible to the rest of the world.

Charles, Northern Ireland
I think pronunciation is extremely important. I have met many students who possess a wide lexical range but are constantly being misunderstood because their pronunciation lets them down.

Ettore, Italy
Pronunciation is not a very high priority as far as you make yourself understood but teaching and learning good pronunciation shouldn't be neglected.

Christine, Tunisia
I think before answering this question, we should define "pronunciation". In my view, pronunciation does not just mean the way we say individual words, but includes things like sentence stress and intonation. I always explain to my learners that an error with grammar, or more correctly syntax, will often be compensated for by a native speaker who attributes it to the fact that the person is "foreign", but an error with intonation or register will bring the native speaker to think that the person is impolite or even unpleasant. Pronunciation is, in fact part of the "grammar" of a language, and as such,should be given sufficient importance.

Derek Shields, UK
The Gendarme in 'Ello 'ello taught us that you can be syntactically correct and have a wide vocabulary, but pronunciation is all.

Anita Gupta, India
I don't think pronunciation is a priority. In the learning of a Second language there is bound to be L1 interference. It is the wrong 'Stress' that creates problems of comprehension.

David, USA
Is there a difference between:
Rice and Lice? or Play and Pray? or Pork and Fork?
Once a student said, "I like to eat fork", and another said, "I like to pray basketball," and one student even likes to eat lice.

I think students will be glad if we can help spare them embarrassment by spending time teaching pronunciation.

Leandro Rodríguez, Cuba
In my opinion, teaching pronunciation should take more attention than it does now. Right now I am starting a research on the same topic and I am gathering information on the subject because teaching pronunciation in Secondary school is not a very frequent practice.

Tim, Japan
It is important, but then there is the prickly matter of which pronunciation. Do we follow British or American standards? I personally try for something sort of neutral, although this can be difficult. I think it is good to gather listening material that is either 'Transatlantic', or includes several examples of both British and American.

Having stated my case, I do tend to favour intonation over pronunciation of words, since it carries a great deal of meaning in conversation.

Nancy Espinosa , Ecuador
I think pronunciation should be a high priority in the teaching and learning process because speaking is production, and teachers want our students to produce something, I mean We want students to speak English, but a good English with good pronunciation.

Erdogan Kýzýlkale
I know many people who know lots of words and grammar rules but can not understand when they are spoken to in English

Rosalind, Dubai
I think teaching pronunciation is essential for our students. It leads them to a better understanding of native speakers and improves their ability to communicate. Pronunciation work gives the students more knowledge of how the language works because after all if the students know the language but can't communicate with it then it is a great pity. For the sake of a few minutes in each lesson, it's worth it.

Safa, Egypt
I think pronunciation is important, as every word has its own meaning it also must have its own pronunciation to explain that meaning.

Maryam Samy, Egypt
Of course pronunciation is essential in any language. It helps us communicate with others and transfer information.

Lubna M, Pakistan
I think teaching pronunciation should be a priority because if a person can speak English or any language of world but his pronunciation is not well he could not convey his opinion, no one can understand him.

Pakistan
I think it's a priority because it has much importance. If a child can speak English or any other language but his pronunciation is not better he could not speak with confidence, he could not convey his ideas.

Sami, Pakistan
I suppose that pronunciation has a basic role in communication. If pronunciation is not up to the mark, true meanings of the word are not communicated.....

Maria, Russia
To my opinion, teaching pronunciation is as important as teaching grammar because wrong pronunciation leads to misunderstanding and embarrassing situations.

Pawel Tabaszewski, Poland
Colin from Russia and Imam from Iran are absolutely right. A native-like pronunciation is just a dream for most learners. Under no circumstances will I discourage them by endless drills trying to emphasise the difference between THought and Fought. The teacher's common sense is what counts here. What is more, do not use all the pronunciation exercises in the course books; skip those sounds which exist in the students' L1. Furthermore, explaining the differences between British, Scottish, Irish or American pronunciation is rather teaching culture than ESL.

Eveline, Belgium
Of course pronunciation is important! I think we should pay attention to the pronunciation of every new word we teach our students, and that we should make it clear to them straight from the start that people won't understand them if they don't pronounce words properly.

Iman Beheshti, Iran
You can never expect a learner to be able to speak like a native, experience has shown me that we can just expect a correct pronunciation and intonation but should never ask them to adapt to a particular accent like the British or the American. It's not fair and often not achievable either!

Savio George, India
Really good pronunciation is a must. The listener can't understand anything if my pronunciation is not proper. So the basic rule is the proper pronunciation should be taught at the basic level that is schooling.

Pinar, Turkey
Pronunciation is of high importance in SLA. The better a learner pronounces the words, the higher will be the profit of learning a language. Good pronunciation makes easier the communication process.

Katarina, Croatia
In my opinion pronunciation is a high priority. I have noticed that people from Lithuania pronounce THE like (z) e.g. buzz, wisdom, etc; while in Croatia it moves slightly towards (d) as in DEAN, DEFINITELY, etc. Linking words and numerous other things are important to raise language competence as well.

Peter Simon, Hungary (and China)
True, if somebody can't be understood for lack of any level of understandable pronunciation, it's a problem. But so would be other basic ignorance of any type, be it grammatical, or simply complete ignorance of accepted meaning of words, as is so often the case in China. Sorry, Lee, there the main problem stems from rote learning, which works well for Chinese, but not for foreign languages. If students memorize weird translations, where does pronunciation come in if they aren't taught either this or real usage? If, however, we start teaching orally, pronunciation will not be such a big hurdle as with reading first. Also, easier in Europe!

Lili, China
I think pronunciation is very important in communicating with foreigners. If you can't pronounce the word correctly, others will not understand what you mean.

David, Singapore
If standard English pronunciation is learnt, effective spoken communication will be enhanced. Many confuse accents or dialects with pronunciation.

Rizwan Jamil, Pakistan
"Correct pronunciation is a dress to a person". It plays the most vital role in the two way communication process.

Luna,UK
As a non-native teacher of English I think pronunciation is of utmost importance when teaching. Most of my students are foreigners who do not have much exposure to English outside the classroom as they live in their own community. Listening to a tape will not help them as much as the teacher can. Hence it is a priority for me to have the right pronunciation.

Vrushali, India
Yes, I think Pronunciation is the main thing in any language. I know what happens if some one mispronounces, because am the native of the metropolitan city like Mumbai which have multi culture.

Iran
I have always believed in norms. So there has to be a standard norm for pronunciation to which the English learner should adhere. That norm, I believe, is native speaker pronunciation.

Oman
I think good pronunciation will improve your English. Although I have bad pronunciation I am trying to improve it.

Hassan
In my own point of view, I think that pronunciation is very essential for learning second languages.

Ide Rabelo, Brazil
I suppose without proper pronunciation we can't communicate profitably.

Viet Nam
It is a really bad feeling when we speak to a foreigner and we can not understand them while they understand us. It is because of our bad pronunciation. Like a body, language need to be alive. If you speak English, you should try to pronounce like English do, as correct as possible. In my opinion, right pronunciation is necessary for any learners. Using a language in general, English in particular should be first speaking. If only writing and reading skills practised, learners would become deaf one or something like that. It would be terrible,ok?

CRS Sarma, India
I think being able to speak English with proper pronunciation not only makes our speech intelligible, but also builds up proper rapport with the listeners.

Colin, Russia
I don't stress pronunciation too much in my classroom. I'll admit, it matters to a certain extent. But we must understand that our students are learning a foreign language. As such, they will always retain some degree of an accent. If you speak a foreign language, you know what I mean. Also the differences between British and American English make this point seem trivial at times. It doesn't matter how they pronounce vitamins as long as they know the word.

Ahmet, Turkey
Pronunciation is crucial in learning English especially for SLA.

Green, Japan
Pronunciation is important and molding of words and slowly speaking in teaching in Japan.

Vikas, India
I think good pronunciation will improve your English and also your grammar and listening.

Sana, Morocco
I think pronunciation is the most important thing in learning any language.

Lucia Martini, Italy
Most of the time English teachers in primary school have no idea of what the right pronunciation means. And pupils learn the wrong one. It's so hard in secondary school trying to improve their accent!

Kaddari, Morocco
Correct pronunciation is important but I am not for giving priority to it. I prefer to teach it in an implicit way. Using the tape recorder is the way I recommend.

Truong Binh, Viet nam
Everyone, I think, has their own purpose to study languages in general and English in particular, but for any purposes, correct pronunciation is obviously very important. Main aim of language is of course to communicate. It will be very difficult to understand or to be understood if one of us has many pronunciation mistakes.

Pooja, Sri Lanka
I think pronunciation is very important to speaking. If I pronounce wrongly the other person can't understand me. So we should pronounce correctly.

Sue Webster, Italy
If somebody's pronunciation is bad, you can't understand them. It's as simple as that!

Regina, Whingwiri
Pronunciation is important and molding of words and slowly speaking in teaching in Asia.

Lee, China
In my country, there are so many people who are learning English, but when we make a dialogue, the problem appears, that is pronunciation, we just don't understand each other.

Bill Strickland, Hong Kong
Must be taught in conjunction with phonics. Many of the students I teach here in Hong Kong can say the alphabet, but have no idea of the variety of sounds each letter can make. Hence they are very weak in reading, speaking and spelling, and have little confidence with the language.

Luisa, Peru
If we've got a poor pronunciation we won't be able to communicate correctly.

Magaly, Peru
Yes, it's very important because the other people will understand what you say.

Esra Celik, Turkey
Pronunciation is crucial in learning English especially for SLA.

Jameela, Malaysia
Pronunciation is most essential as it is part of the listening and speaking component of any language training.

Ryukyu
I was a little surprised to see the results of the poll. Pronunciation is important but it is not a priority in my teaching. Even among English native speakers, they pronounce the same words differently (e.g. British or American English.) Of course, English with a strong accent sometimes prevents people from understanding each other well. However, I believe that there are many things besides pronunciation that help people communicate well with each other such as background or content knowledge, grammar, etc. Moreover, I wonder if the one definitely correct pronunciation exists on this earth.

Chang, Malaysia
If a person is unable to pronounce words, then it is very likely he will find it extremely difficult to spell and to write let alone speak.

Hester Pauer, Switzerland
Pronunciation is absolutely essential. Learners who are aware that their pronunciation is quite good may grow in confidence and then perform better in other aspects of speaking, such as maintaining fluency.

Hamid Naveed, Dubai
Pronunciation is an important aspect of Second Language Learning; therefore the teacher as well as the students should strive to improve it systematically. After all, we speak a language more than we write it or read it.

Deniz, Turkey
I think the pronunciation is very important and one of the key points for mutual intelligibility. It helps for the bridging of communication.

Katrin, Germany
Pronunciation is essential, because otherwise people might not understand what one says.

Spain
As teachers we can not expect our students to sound like New Yorkers or Londoners, but we can of course teach them how to pronounce words correctly so that they can understand and make themselves understood.

Abimbola Obiwole, Nigeria
I think pronunciation is very important and next to communication. Fluency in speech produces good hearing.

Manna, Bangladesh
I suppose without proper pronunciation we can't communicate profitably.

Hala Fawzi, Sudan
I think mutual intelligibility, as Crystal said, is much important than to produce a near native pronunciation.

Iran, Ghazal Hosseinzadeh
I suppose without proper pronunciation we can't communicate profitably.

Gregor Chudoba, Austria
Pronunciation Games by Mark Hancock, CUP offers a nice array of games for various levels and age groups; copiable resources at a reasonable price, highly recommendable if you are not completely anti-game.