Many people will have seen the video advert for a well-known language school that features a supposedly German coastguard responding to a Mayday message where a ship’s captain says: ‘We are sinking’ and the coastguard responds by saying ‘What are you sinking about?’ (Mojo Yachting Club, 2025). The problem is that this is just another demonstration of why what causes misunderstandings is, well . . . misunderstood. Just think for a minute, surely the context makes the message clear. Are we really to believe that the coastguard is so stupid he doesn’t understand what the captain of the ship is saying? Of course, it’s an effective advert as it has gone viral, so from the point of view of the language school it has probably improved their profile and may well have led to an increase in the number of students.
I’m often reminded by this advert of a time when there was a slight issue due to mispronunciation in one of my classes. We were doing an activity that required students to use different coloured pencils and one student, funnily enough a German, said: ‘I want the red van’. Everyone paused, looking a bit confused, until one of the other students said: ‘Oh, the red one. Here you are’. Despite a moment of confusion, the context again made it clear what the student was saying.
One of my biggest concerns when it comes to teaching pronunciation is just how much time and energy is spent on teaching individual sounds. Look through almost any coursebook series and the vast majority of pronunciation exercises are devoted to distinguishing between individual phonemes. I have to say here that there are quite a few people working in the field of pronunciation who emphasise that suprasegmental features (extending over a series of sounds) are far more important in terms of intelligibility than segmental ones (such as individual sounds). However, one issue here is that many teachers say that suprasegmental features such as intonation are unteachable (Thornbury, 2006).
In Adrian Underhill’s seminal work Sound Foundations (1994) he wrote:
Linguistic descriptions of phonology usually follow a two-fold division of the subject matter into segmental (i.e. phonemes) and suprasegmentals (i.e. intonation and rhythm). This framework . . . does not necessarily provide the most useful basis on which to build learning activities.
– Adrian Underhill (1994)
He then goes on to suggest dividing phonology into three areas: sounds, words and connected speech. However, I would argue that the focus, particularly with the chart, is still very much on individual phonemes. This might not have been Underhill’s intention, but certainly when I talk to teachers around the world who know about Sound Foundations it is certainly the impression I get.
Another reason why pronunciation lessons are often a waste of time is that many students do not need to sound exactly like L1 speakers to communicate effectively. In fact, insisting on L1-like pronunciation can be demotivating and unnecessary for most learners. Global English, as it is spoken by millions of people, is full of accents from all over the world, and in many international contexts, the goal is mutual intelligibility rather than perfect pronunciation. Focusing too much on individual phonemes or trying to sound like an L1 speaker is not only time-consuming but can also make students self-conscious about speaking, which in turn could reduce their confidence and fluency.
Take the example of English as a lingua franca (ELF). In ELF situations, where English is used between L2 speakers, intelligibility is far more important than perfect pronunciation. Research in this field, particularly by linguists such as Jennifer Jenkins, highlights that many L1-speaker pronunciation norms are simply not relevant to effective communication between non-native speakers (Jenkins, 2000; 2007). Jenkins’ work has shown that certain sounds which are typically emphasised in traditional pronunciation teaching (like the difference between ship and sheep) rarely lead to misunderstandings among L2 speakers. In these contexts, prosody (the rhythm, stress and intonation patterns of speech) plays a far more significant role than perfect articulation of individual phonemes. So, when teachers spend hours drilling minimal pairs like pen and pan, they are often wasting time that could be better spent on more communicative activities.
The issue of time allocation in language classrooms is another factor to consider. With limited hours available, teachers must make difficult decisions about where to focus their attention. Is it really a good use of time to spend whole lessons on drilling sounds like /ð/ and / θ/ when those sounds don’t always hinder communication in real-life scenarios? Many students, particularly adult learners, have priorities such as vocabulary building, fluency or mastering certain grammar structures that may feel more urgent to them. Yet, many courses and teachers continue to devote disproportionate amounts of time to pronunciation drills, neglecting other skills that might have a more immediate and significant impact on learners’ ability to communicate.
Furthermore, many pronunciation exercises rely on out-of-context drilling, which doesn’t reflect how language is used in real-life situations. Students repeat words or sentences in isolation, focusing solely on articulating a particular sound, but this practice doesn’t transfer well to spontaneous conversation. In authentic speech, people rarely think about the individual sounds they are producing. Instead, their focus is on conveying meaning and responding to others. As a result, pronunciation lessons that focus heavily on sound accuracy, divorced from real-world communication, often do not lead to lasting improvement. Students may be able to pronounce sounds correctly in the classroom, but once they are in a real-life situation where they need to speak quickly and naturally, they revert to their usual pronunciation patterns.
Additionally, teachers often overlook the fact that different languages have different phonetic systems, and some sounds simply don’t exist in certain languages. For example, Japanese learners of English may struggle with the difference between ‘r’ and ‘l’ sounds, as these two sounds are not distinguished in Japanese. While it’s reasonable to make students aware of these differences, spending hours on perfecting them may not be a good use of time. In many cases, as long as the overall message is understood, minor pronunciation issues can be tolerated. Rather than trying to completely eliminate an accent or perfect every sound, teachers should focus on improving students’ ability to make themselves understood in a range of situations, regardless of small pronunciation errors.
The increasing reliance on technology in language learning also brings into question the value of extensive pronunciation lessons. With advances in AI and speech recognition, learners can practise their pronunciation on apps that provide instant feedback. These tools can allow for individual, targeted practice at the student’s own pace, freeing up valuable classroom time for more interactive and communicative activities. Additionally, online resources or specialised pronunciation apps can give students the opportunity to work on their sounds independently, which may be a better way to approach pronunciation practice rather than dedicating significant portions of class time to it.
Finally, it’s worth considering that focusing too much on pronunciation can have negative cultural implications. Many students have accents that reflect their cultural identity, and trying to ‘erase’ these accents in favour of an L1-like standard can unintentionally promote the idea that foreign accents are inferior. This is problematic because it perpetuates the notion that there is one ‘correct’ way to speak English, when in fact English is a global language with many varieties (Kirkpatrick, 2007). Encouraging students to embrace their accents, as long as they are intelligible, is a much more inclusive and empowering approach than insisting they conform to L1-speaker norms.
In conclusion, while there is a place for pronunciation in language learning, especially when it comes to intelligibility, much of the time spent on pronunciation in lessons is often misdirected. Rather than focusing heavily on individual sounds and striving for L1-like accents, it is more beneficial to prioritise communicative competence and intelligibility, particularly in international contexts. Classroom time is limited, and it should be used wisely to equip learners with the skills they need most, which may not always include perfect pronunciation.
