University/Organization
SHINSHU UNIVERSITY, JAPAN

SHINSHU UNIVERSITY, JAPAN

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

Title
TEACHING ENGLISH TO JAPANESE EFL LEARNERS USING PHONETICS: A PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATION OF THE VOWEL TRIANGLE

Synopsis
English Teaching in Japan is facing a reformation and changing its “Government Course Guideline”. In the new Guideline, teaching communicative English is one of the biggest goals and teaching pronunciation is a hot topic on the agenda. This paper tries to show the effectiveness of using the knowledge of phonetics, more specifically, the knowledge of Vowel Triangle, in teaching pronunciation to Japanese elementary students, especially focusing on the [æ] sound, which is one of the most difficult sounds for Japanese to produce, and aims to contribute to the better English pedagogy.

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