Presentation

Native speaker perspectives on pronunciation teaching: A phenomenological study

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Abstract

This study investigates how in-service native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) perceive pronunciation and pronunciation teaching. Further, it explores NESTs’ views on the role of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in teaching pronunciation. The study was conducted at a language college in Sydney, Australia, and data were collected through structured interviews with 11 in-service NESTs. The data were thematically analyzed. The results show that teachers generally regard pronunciation as an essential component of communication, yet their understanding of pronunciation and its instructional goals vary considerably. While many participants emphasized intelligibility, some associated effective pronunciation with native norms. Overall, the findings highlight a gap between widely accepted principles in pronunciation research and the beliefs and practices reported by in-service teachers. This calls for stronger connections between research-informed pedagogy and classroom practice.

Keywords: native English teachers, non-native teachers, ESL instruction, teacher cognition, phonetic challenges, pronunciation pedagogy, teacher training

How to Cite:

Mahmood, R. Q. (2026). Native speaker perspectives on pronunciation teaching: A phenomenological study. In P. Trofimovich, A. Bodea, T.-N. N. Le, R. Suzuki, & C. Teló (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference (pp. 1–12). Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, October 2025. https://doi.org/10.31274/psllt.21147