Communicative language teaching as English pronunciation teaching method : developing exercises

Abstract

This thesis pursues to apply communicative language teaching (CLT) into English pronunciation teaching in the context of Finnish school and curriculum for grades 7.-9. CLT is the theoretical basis of this thesis and the research question is: How can CLT be applied to English pronunciation teaching to promote learner autonomy and motivation in order to achieve more effective learning results? This question is answered in the form of communicative pronunciation tasks (CPTs) which aim to realise the principles of the theory of CLT. Research methods used in this thesis are ethnographical observations and experience, and ideation based on the theory of CLT. The analysis resulted in three communicative pronunciation tasks which each include communicative features. However, each of the tasks also face challenges in realising the principles of CLT and are therefore examples on how to begin developing new language tasks, rather than finished model examples of communicative pronunciation tasks. Further research should be conducted in order to prove the functionality of the CPTs presented in this thesis, and to develop them further.