testing pronounciation

What Is Testing Pronunciation? Testing can be defined according to Hartmann (1972:236), where he says that testing is: The setting of exercises and tasks to measure either the student's aptitude for a particular subject or his achievement in a particular subject. Tests in language teaching should be related to the aim of the instruction, and ideally all linguistic skills taught . . . should be represented in language examinations. While pronunciation can be defined as “The way an individual speaker or group of speakers within a speech community articulate speech sounds.” (Ibid:186) The ideal (communicative) way of testing pronunciation is to actually listen to the learner. But since this is not always possible or suitable, the alternatives discussed here can be used for testing segments and word stress. Dictation Given that speaking and listening skillsare interrelated, dictation remains one ofthe ways of testing the learner’spronunciation. This testing method isbased on the assumption that, most often,if the learner has a deviant pronunciationof a word, he will not understand it whenit is read with a different pronunciation. Test Segments: In addition to the various forms of dictation analysed above, there are many listening activities (and others that could involve the interpretation of gestures and pictures) designed to test the learner’s ability to discriminate phonemes or groups of phonemes. Following are a few examples:1. Same or Different? The testees listen to a pair of words or pairs of sentences and indicate whether they are the same or different; 2. a or b (or c)? A multitude of sound-discrimination tests can be grouped under what can be broadly termed an a or b (or c) test. For example, the testees are shown pictures eliciting the following words; 3. Which Definition? A word is read twice, and several different definitions, including one that is correct for the word, are given; the testees are asked to select the correct definition for the word heard; This type of exercise has the extra advantage that it tests vocabulary at the same time.4. Which Ones Are the Same? The testees listen to a list of words and mark the ones that are the same. 5. Fill the Gap. The testees listen to a sentence and select from a set of words the one they hear; Using colour cards Colour cards are particularly useful in testing the many phonological alternations that exist in English; e.g., [s, z, Iz]; [t, d, Id]; [˜g, ˜], [aIn, aIt; In, It], [S, Z], [ks, gz], etc. Tests other than listening comprehension 1. Phonetic Transcription. 2. 2. Finding an Odd Member. 3. 3. Regrouping. 4. 4. Matching. 5. 5. Miscellaneous Ways of Testing Pronunciation.