Review
Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca
Robin Walker (2010, Oxford University Press)
224pp
ISBN 978-0-19-442200-0
Review by Daniel Barber.
Daniel Barber is an ELT teacher, trainer and course book writer based in Cadiz, Spain.
Contact: danieljamesbarber72@gmail.com
This book is a significant contribution to the literature of methodology of English
Language Teaching. It answers many questions, all of which have been left hanging for
too long, and all of which are crucial if language teaching is to develop along with the
international language it teaches.
Robin Walker promises ‘an accessible description of English as a Lingua Franca’
and this is how the book opens. I do not believe there is a better introduction to ELF:
concise yet comprehensive, simultaneously academic and practical, and resounding in
its argument for teachers to adopt an ELF approach to pronunciation. The authorial
authority that runs through each chapter is irresistible; too often in ELT literature
teachers are pampered with gentle suggestions along the lines of ‘You may wish to…’,
but Walker’s message is too urgent, too contrary to current practice to beat around the
bush:
The members of [the community of users of English] are predominantly non-native
speakers. If [native speakers] wish to join the ELF community, they can only do this
by respecting ELF norms. What native speakers cannot do… is to impose their
particular set of native-speaker norms. Nor can they expect the members of the ELF
community to adjust to these norms.
But Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca is not just a
convincing argument in favour, it is also a blue print for the future teaching of
pronunciation in our field. The ideas first expounded by Jennifer Jenkins almost twenty
years ago are here finally wrested from the theoretical realm and appropriated for
classroom use. After years of wrangling over whether ELF can really be identified, let
alone taught, a teacher has pinned it down and told us exactly what we need to do to
adopt it, plan it, teach it and test it. Walker argues consistently for the practicality of
teaching using ELF theory as a starting point, prepared to jettison established practices
if necessary. Again, he doesn’t mince his words:
Neurolinguistically inaccessible, pedagogically unteachable, possibly meaningless…
the teaching of tones is not a good investment of classroom time.
For those unfamiliar with ELF theory, then, the book will serve as an excellent
introduction to the area; to those looking for a practicable guide to teaching it, Walker
shows us the way forward.
The book is well sign-posted, with goals identified and chapters summarised
succinctly. One message that comes through clearly is the need for flexibility: in
teachers prepared to adapt the approach to their particular learners’ nationalities and
personal objectives, and in learners who will need to accommodate their interlocutors’
differences. Just as the teaching-learning process is a joint responsibility, so is the
communicative burden between speakers of different linguistic backgrounds.
Walker has written a book that lives by its word; not only does it include a CD that
showcases the global varieties of English in interviews with a range of speakers, these
tracks are introduced by those speakers, too, avoiding the RP voiceover ubiquitous in
ELT audio materials. In gaining an insight into the present internationalism of English
there really is no substitute for hearing the global voices of its users, and the content of
what they talk about is genuinely interesting. The CD serves several purposes. It is
referred to throughout the book to illustrate aspects of ELF. Walker is optimistic if he
expects readers to follow his argument by dipping into the CD as they read; I would
have liked to be able to listen to a potted description of ELF (Chapter 2) in audio format
so that I could hear illustrative examples rather than trawling around the CD looking for
the utterances myself.
Walker also recommends that teachers use the audio in class to help learners become
familiar with ELF varieties and to raise awareness of issues surrounding accent,
intelligibility and learner pronunciation goals. While he describes ways that this could
be done, it falls outside the book’s remit to provide many materials for teachers to do so
easily, and instead we are invited to exploit them as we see fit. While he is correct to
point out the ELF void in listening materials today (though some new course books do
include NNS voices in their audio), I am not convinced the tracks are particularly userfriendly and it will take an experienced teacher to exploit them effectively. What is
really useful is his recommendation that we draft in the services of well-known
activities to help us in our task: drills, minimal pairs, dictation and so on. No mystery
there, just good old intensive listening and speaking practice.
Another valuable tool for the teacher is an updated version of Swan and Walter’s classic
Learner English. Refreshingly, though, rather than seeing the L1 as ‘interference’ and a
‘problem’, Walker describes the benefits of first language transfer, ‘a resource that
learners and teachers can take advantage of’ and a motivating way of teaching good
pronunciation. Chapter 5 covers most major first languages of students of English and
provides down-to earth advice on correcting areas where intelligibility is an issue,
allowing teachers to put the learners’ L1s to good use in correcting pronunciation. To
give an example that TESOL Spain members will be familiar with:
/ʃ/ is not a phoneme of Spanish… Fortunately, / ʃ/ is present in various
regional accents or languages. In some parts of Andalucia, ‘muchacho’ is
pronounced [muˈʃaʃo]. In Galician, the <x> is pronounced [ʃ] in words like
‘xunta’…
Since Jennifer Jenkins’ seminal research in the nineties her ideas around ELF have
been broadly accepted in TESOL circles if not yet the wider world. Yet a practical guide
for the teacher has not been forthcoming. Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a
Lingua Franca bridges the gap between the grand idea and classroom reality.