Teaching Prosody to Italian Learners of English: Working towards a New Approach

The expanding role of English as the language of international communication has important implications for English language pedagogy. Statistics show that speakers of English as a second and foreign language worldwide largely outnumber the speakers of English as a first language, so that International English can no longer be considered the ‘exclusive property’ of its native speakers (Ferguson, 2006; Kachru, 1985; Trudgill, 1998). At the theoretical level, the need is felt for revisiting traditional definitions of standards, norms and models to use in language descriptions and teaching, so as to integrate varieties of English spoken by non-native speakers, and developed both within well-established traditions, e.g., Indian English, and new traditions, e.g. European English (also called EuroEnglish, see Jenkins, 2006; Seidlhofer, 2004). At the applied level, new teaching practices are emerging, which represent “a ‘paradigm shift’ away from conventional EFL models” (Graddol, 2006: 15), and emphasize skills and abilities that can meet the evolving needs of International English users. For example, because of the large number of English non-native speakers worldwide, the view is being accredited that learners should be exposed to different varieties of English, including non-native ones. The current debate on English as an International Language is placing pronunciation in a new position with regard to language instruction. This is due to the fact that interlanguage communication rests on the concept of mutual intelligiTeaching Prosody to Italian Learners of English: Working towards a New Approach