Rehabilitating a Fossilized Pronunciation Error: The /v/ and /w/ Contrast by Using the Audio-Articulation Method in Teacher Training in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the applicability of a pronunciation teaching and correction case entitled the audio-articulation method, developed by Demirezen (2003, 2004), in the field of teacher training in which there is a scarcity of such methods. The audio-articulation method is a fossilized pronunciation mistake breaker, moving raising awareness of a fossilized mistake to perception via listening to oral practice. This method integrates pronunciation practicing into oral communication in the context of speaking by means of chain drills, substitution drills, repetition drills, inflection drills, replacement drills, restatement drills, completion drills, transposition drills, expansion drills, contraction drills, transformation drills, integration drills, rejoinder drills, restoration drills, question-answer drills, and language games are of great help in this respect. In addition, listen and imitate technique with mirroring, tracking, and echoing (shadowing), developmental approximation drills, and explanation techniques are all practiced, repeated in form of exhortations without boring the students. The applications of this method and related exercises, practically applied to experimental groups during a term of 14 weeks by Murat HiÅŸmanoÄŸlu (2004) in a doctoral dissertation, and it has been demonstrated that its has significant rehabilitating potentiality in correcting the pronunciation errors of non-native speaking English language teachers and student teachers in Turkey.