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Table 4 Guidelines for pronunciation teaching and learning from 2001 to 2016

From: Nativeness versus intelligibility as goal of English pronunciation teaching in China: Changing attitudes in national syllabi and curriculum standards

Syllabus/curriculum standards

Guidelines for pronunciation teaching and learning

2001

English Curriculum Standards for Full-Time Compulsory Education and General Senior High Schools

(Experimental Edition)

Role of pronunciation: (1) “Pronunciation is one of the important elements of language teaching”; (2) “Natural and normative (guifan de) pronunciation and intonation will lay a good foundation for effective oral communication”

Requirements for pronunciation abilities: In oral English activities, (1) pronunciation should be clear, correct, fluent and natural; (2) intonation should be appropriate, natural, and fluent; (3) tone and rhythm should be appropriate

Teaching contents: Same as the 1988 syllabus, except for (1) the addition of assimilation, and the return of rhythm and weak forms, (2) the removal of IPA (for the first time ever)

Suggested teaching/learning activities: (1) Including all the activities ever suggested in all the previous syllabi, plus role play, in-class group discussions, presentations, situational dialogues, everyday communication; (2) once again emphasizing the important role of imitation

Named pedagogy: Task-based language teaching; still embracing the CLT approach and the audiolingual method; holding that pronunciation teaching should emphasize the combination of meaning and context, as well as the combination of intonation and speech flow

Pronunciation goal: No specification, but assuming a “normative” pronunciation model of some English speaking countries

Target interlocutors: No specification, but with not just NESs intended, as shown by part of the descriptions about the purpose of learning English, namely, to use English, “the most important carrier of information” and the “most widely used language in all aspects of human life”, in the “informationization of social life and economic globalization”

2003

English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools

(Experimental Edition)

Teaching contents: Almost the same as the 2001 curriculum standards, except for the addition of “differences in pronunciation between major English-speaking countries”

Target interlocutors: No specification, but with not just NESs intended, as shown by part of the descriptions about the purpose of learning English, to use English, “an international language (guoji tongyong yuzhong)”, to “learn advanced culture, science and technology from other countries” and “conduct international communication”

All the other aspects are the same as the 2001 curriculum standards

2012

English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2011 Edition)

Requirements for pronunciation (Level 5, at the end of compulsory education): Same as the Level 5 requirements in the 2001 curriculum standards, except for the addition of “ability to pronounce individual words according to their phonetic transcriptions”

Named pedagogy: “all methods that emphasizing both the process and the product of learning, such as TBLT” (encouraging teachers to choose or synthesize teaching methods appropriate for their own context to cultivate students’ ability to do things with English)

Target interlocutors: No specification, but with not just NESs intended, as shown by part of the descriptions about the purpose of learning English, to use English, “one of the most widely used languages”, as “an important tool for international communication and scientific, technological and cultural exchange”

All the other aspects are the same as the 2001 curriculum