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The present thesis examines in-class pronunciation of Czech secondary school English teachers in relation to the international debate about goals and models of English pronunciation teaching. The theoretical part of the work briefly describes the phenomenon of a foreign accent, its sociolinguistic significance, and factors influencing its degree. Subsequently, it delineates segmental and suprasegmental aspects of English pronunciation relevant to Czech foreign accent, and discusses selected accents of English regarding their status in the eyes of non-native speakers and their suitability as models of pronunciation. The core of our study is an auditory analysis of pronunciation, based on recordings of speech of ten Czech secondary school teachers of English, obtained directly in class at four Czech secondary schools - two in Prague and two in Opava - using a lavalier microphone. The results of this analysis are compared to the results of questionnaires focused on these teachers' convictions and attitudes concerning pronunciation teaching. Our findings indicate that while the phonemes /r/, /w/ and /θ/ are easy for Czech teachers to realise in a standard manner, it seems that learners typically cannot acquire standard pronunciation of /ð/ and /æ/ only through listening to their teacher's... |
