Developing students’ receptive and productive pronunciation skills in the context of higher education and distance learning

The paper focuses on developing students’ pronunciation skills in conditions of distance learning in higher education. The authors analyze the specifics of online EFL lessons (their advantages and disadvantages), list the main mistakes in teaching pronunciation and suggest the ways for teachers to avoid making them. The authors applied several methods during their research, i.e. comparative historical analysis of the up-to-date approaches to teaching pronunciation in English Teaching Methodology, observation, learning experience and project-based learning method. Special attention in the paper is given to the most efficient forms of student work during an online lesson in the aspect of acquiring natural English pronunciation and to the right way for teachers to motivate students and organize their unguided pronunciation practice activities. The importance of fostering students’ pronunciation skills is proven along with the vital role of pronunciation aspect in students’ communicative competence. The aim of teaching pronunciation is established with the term «threshold level of pronunciation». The article also concentrates on specific stages of online listening exercises and on the importance of doing them in the right order. Several options of facilitating the process of acquiring pronunciation skills during distance learning are offered in the article, i.e. shadowing technique, scaffolding, project work and individuallyoriented approach.

1. Al-Jarf R. (2022). YouTube videos as a resource for self-regulated pronunciation practice in EFL distance learning environments. Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. 4 (2): 44-52.

2. Asrul N., Husda A. (2022). Enhancing pronunciation skills through phonetic method. Al-Ishlah: Jurnal Pendidikan. 14 (3): 4167-4176.

3. Celce-Murcia M., Goodwin J. M. (1996). Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 435 p.

4. Chernyshov S., Evtushok Yu., Osipova A. (2022). Specifics of teaching foreign language reading for detailed comprehension to high school students. Professional Discourse and Communication. 4: 72-85. (In Russian)

5. Guliyeva Z. (2024). Teaching Listening as a receptive skill. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference «Foundations and Trends in Research». Copenhagen, Denmark, 2024. 20-24.

6. Hai Yen T. T. (2012). Using movie dubbing to improve natural English pronunciation skills. English Teaching Forum. 59 (1): 20–25.

7. Kelly G. (2001). How to Teach Pronunciation. San-Francisco: Pearson Education, 2001. 154 p.

8. Kiselev A. (2020). Distance learning of students: problems and prospects of its development after the coronavirus pandemic. Development of Education. 2 (8): 97–100. (In Russian)

9. Konisheva A. V. (2002). Peculiarities of team teaching of a foreign language. Byalistok, 2002. 109-119. (In Russian)

10. Kulinska A. (2020). Students’ motivation in distant education. Forum Filologiczne Ateneum. 1 (8): 325-343.

11. Kuzmytska M. (2021). A survey on pronunciation skills development in English: experience and strategies. Norwegian Journal of Development of the International Science. 59-2: 29-32.

12. Majeed N. T., Hameed Y. Q. (2020). The effectiveness of multimedia technique in teaching reading comprehension to EFL preparatory school students. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities. 27 (5): 119-141.

13. Nation P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 630 p.

14. Petrova S. O., Chesnokova Ya. A. (2019). Using of team work at a foreign language lesson. European research, X International Scientific Conference. 149-151. (In Russian)

15. Ryu J., Jeon M. (2020). An analysis of the text complexity of listening scripts of high school English textbooks using Coh-metrix. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics. 20: 363-383.

16. Scherba L. V. (1958). Selected works on linguistics and phonetics. Leningrad: Publishing house of Lenigr. un-ta, 1958. 182 p.

17. Setiawan F., Solihah Yu. A. (2023). Strategies for Teaching Reading to Students With High and Low Vocabularies: Emphasizing Gist and Graphic Organizers. International Journal of Environmental, Sustainability, and Social Science. 4(3): 847-856.

18. Szyrocka J. R., Żywiołek J., Nayyar A., Naved M. Advances in distant learning in times of pandemic. London: CRC Press, 2023. 299 p.

19. Troitskaya Yu. V. (2021). Development of communicative competence through distance learning. Vestnik of Samara University. 27 (2): 70-76.

20. Zharkova T. I. (2016). Intonation as a sound pattern in communication between sociolingual representatives of different languages. Innovation Development of Professional Education. 1(9): 28-32.

21. Zhuriy T. V. (2008). Teaching pronunciation in the history of teaching approaches in Russia and abroad. Izvestia: Herzen University Journal of Humanites & Science. 73-2: 54-59. (In Russian)