The Importance of Pronunciation Instruction in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom

Sammanfattning: The field of pronunciation instruction has long been a neglected area. In recent years, however, researchers have found a renewed interest in the subject. For example, research has been conducted to investigate the views on pronunciation instruction held by teachers and learners. In light of this, the present study seeks to explore the field of research in pronunciation instruction to answer the question of whether pronunciation instruction is important and beneficial for learners of English as a foreign language. The results of the present study show that teachers and learners alike consider pronunciation instruction an integral part of language teaching. Furthermore, the results show that pronunciation affects comprehension and that pronunciation teaching has positive effects on pronunciation development. In the present study, these results are connected to the Swedish school context, where we draw the conclusion that pronunciation should be included in the English language classroom to a greater extent than is the case at the time of writing this thesis.