Mark Thompson, UK
For those studying English in the UK, why is RP so important when they are very likely to encounter Scots, Welsh, Irish, Geordies, Mancunians, West country accents, the list goes on and on.
I say to students spending a long time in the UK that the most important thing is to expose themselves to as much of the language as possible, train the ear to deal with dialect and accents and don't get too hung up on trying to produce so-called Received Pronunciation. It's 2003!

Martin Topalov, Bulgaria
Pronunciation is of great but not of utmost importance. Some people who have musical aptitude tend to speak better and to aqucuire the native pronunciation more easily, whereas there are people who have lived in UK, or another English speaking contry, for years and still have that harsh talking. Sometimes good pronunciation can be an excuse for poor vocabulary and vice versa. We had better try to call for our studends to strive themselves for close to native pronunciation but we must understand that only few of them will be able to achieve it. Anyway that would be 'Better less than nothing'.

Tasnimur Rahman, India
I feel it is neccesary to teach English with the local pronunciations and then try and improve it to match that spoken by the native speaker. That is the beauty of speaking English. As long as the message is conveyed in lucid terms and pronunciation.

Alison
While correct pronunciation might be a valid aim, it is not all that important, in my view. I get a real kick out of my students having fun speaking English with all their grammar and pronunciation idiosyncracies. Pronunciation in particular, in such moments, is completely irrelevant. It should be said, however, that I am teaching primary school kids, not adults. I could well imagine adults learning English find pronunciation a more important issue than my students do.

David Barrow
Most people who learn ESL learn it their own countries; a few will be lucky enough to be taught by native speakers (very often speakers from different parts of the English speaking world). Most will be taught by people who themselves learnt English as a second language. Is it fair to expect these teachers to have a pronunciation that is as accurate as that of a native speaker?
More important than speaking like a native is understanding how natives speak: stress and intonation, how unstressed vowels very often default to the schwa, how one word runs into another without a pause, how some dialects don't pronounce the r before consonants and after a final vowel

Anna Sielicka, Poland
We teachers know about the role of pronunciation when it comes to commnicating, but our students ignore that as long as they don't have to speak to a foreigner in English. Then, they can see how important the way you say a word is. How easily you can be misunderstood. Good grammar isn't as important as good pronunciation.

Antony
I teach Spanish speakers in northern Spain. They have their own particular accent. As a mother tongue speaker of English, I may choose to respect and listen closely to their words and accents. How many times do teachers correct students because they are thrown by a student's accent and wrongly believe the syntax to be incorrect when it is not in fact incorrect. Why try to enforce a straitjacket on people grappling with another language? The English language has so many forms and variants as many people know, whether in the States, Australia or Bangladesh! We want people to understand us, but we have to adapt and listen to our students too.

Stephanie Carr
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of teaching pronunciation is to create an awareness of phonological features which occur in native speaker pronunciation in order to aid understanding. Whether or not a learner aims to produce such features is, arguably, a secondary issue

Sheila Thompson
I teach English to Spaniards in a rural Andalucian village. In school they are taught grammar and writing to reasonable standards. However, they cannot speak English nor understand it when it is spoken by a native English speaker. I strongly believe in using the phonetic alphabet and pointing out different vowels that produce the same sound. It helps students to understand that English is very different to Spanish. I believe that with the understanding of the sounds in English, many students can achieve a far higher standard of spoken English. They will not speak like native English speakers but will be understood - this is so important if they are to gain confidence in speaking.

Anthony
I think comprehensibility is the aim. If a student can make himself/herself understood, surely that is enough in 90% of cases. And anyway, as someone has already said, what is 'native speaker pronunciation'? RP, Scouse, Scots, Australian... ? French, Italian or Chinese English are just as valid as long as the speaker is comprehensible to other English users.

David Noble, Australia
I think it is important to have your students speak in the 'range of comprehensibility' i.e. so that they can be understood by both native speakers and non-native speakers. We know that adult learners will always retain some form accent and that they will have some pronunciation difficulties that usually stem from first language interference. These areas can be worked on but probably never fully erased. It depends how important pronunciation is to the individual language learner - some are content to be comprehensible, others want to speak like a native speaker. It is also important to expose students to a range of different native speaker accents so that they broaden their aural discrimination.

Dov, China
Teaching English in China I find that my students desire a native American or English accent and I highly recommend and encourage all to take that approach. Being that my native toungue is Hebrew, I find that picking up an early English native accent is mostly helpful in any elemntary communications.

Samuel Perdomo, Cuba
I completely agree with the point stated about the accuracy of pronunciation. A student would like to pronounce like a native, but it is not imperative, at least at first.

Robert
Pronunciation in English is very important, essential even. But yet, we shouldn't forget that pronunciation greatly depends on the accent: compare, say, someone speaking Scouse and Estuary (or even Cockney): thing, say, way, to name a few, will be pronounced in quite a different way, won't they?


Runston Perera
I think pronunciation is not that important because most people in other countries other than England do not have the same accent to have native pronounciation. Therefore if one can speak clearly without making big blunders in pronunciation that would do..


Wendy, Italy
I think it is important to distinguish between pronunciation and accent. Correct pronunciation is important to avoid misunderstandings and embarrassment, but English spoken with a French, Italian, or any other kind of accent can be very attractive to the ears of native speakers.

Sian
If aiming to sound like a native speaker is really something that "many students would like," then who are we to say that it's not important? We are there to help students achieve their aims, not ours.

Sue Roberts
I am a native English speaker and teach English to adults.
Whilst I appreciate the desire to speak any language as a native speaker would, in practice this is rarely achievable. Young students have the best opportunity to achieve this ideal, but since most teachers are not native speakers themselves, they are unlikely to be exposed to a native accent in their learning process.
I believe that it is far better to concentrate on vocabulary and everyday spoken English (the English found in many text books is dated and would identify someone as a non-native speaker as quickly as their accent).
It shouldn’t be difficult to speak English well, with a ‘foreign’ accent.

Gill Wilson, England
In my experience, when speaking to English native speakers (I mean 'normal' people, not EFL teachers who have their ears tuned in to foreign learners), most students can get away with grammatical errors. For example, if a student incorrectly selects the past simple when we might have preferred the present perfect, understanding will probably not be badly impeded; if they put an adjective after a noun, we can still understand.
However, those students whose pronunciation is poor find great difficulty in making themselves understood, however accurate their grammar.
I do not think we should ask the students to aim for native speaker level of pronunciation, as this is often unattainable even for those who have lived here for 25 years. I think we should help the students to aim for an acceptable level of 'understandability' in pronunciation.

Sonia Fernandez
Hello!
I think that native speaker pronunciation is important to be taught. Of course, it all depends on the type of learners and their purpose when studying the language. If, for example, in the case of my students, who are going to be teachers of English, I do not teacher them that type of pronunciation, what will they teach then?
You know that out of the percentage a teacher teaches, the learner masters an inferior percentage, and if we continue reducing that percentage, what will the outcome be then?
In the case of learners who want to learn the language just to communicate with others or with native speakers, I think that having a non-native speaker accent does not interfere in their purposes; so in that case, it is not very important to teach native-like pronunciation.

Christa Ulz
I have got a most treasured old video: Hamlet / Sir Laurence Olivier.- No need for words - His pronunciation creates a language which is so colorful, vivid and beautiful. It makes my heart ache.
As a teacher I often use this video to show my students how pronunciation can be done.And they love this special activity. We know: we can't all be Oliviers- but we can at least make a try.

Doris
As far I am concerned speaking English the way native speakers do should be the best option. Since the language is theirs, those of us learning it should articulate it the way they do.

Anonymous
I tutor young people from all types of backgrounds, whose first born language was not English. I think that there is no better compliment to them in the competitive world they live in than to be told what excellent English they speak. I believe that they encounter less predjudice and can really make their mark by speaking good standard English. I suggest they watch the world news programmes, where all the journalists communicate to a high standard albeit with different accents. I have learnt a number of foreign languages myself, and apply the same principle to myself. I suggest they use a tape recorder to listen to themselves. I get them to scan their words and sentences out loud, as intonation also matters. That way they hear for themselves.