French Teachers of English: Are They Trained to Teach English Pronunciation and Oral Comprehension Properly?

Abstract

Many researchers agree to say that English teachers generally lack adequate skills to teach pronunciation properly (Macdonald, 2002; Chen & Goh, 2010), and that "there is a definite need for more courses for ESL teachers" (Derwing, 2010, p.27). We propose to present a survey that was conducted with 60 French primary school teachers and 71 secondary school teachers of English. The study was conducted in several private and public primary schools and high schools. Through a questionnaire, it focused on teachers’ self-efficacy (i.e their "individual beliefs about their own abilities to perform [the teaching of English pronunciation] (…) and achieve specific results" (Chen & Goh, 2010, p.333), on how the teachers working in these schools were trained (or not) to teach English pronunciation, and how they are used to working on pronunciation and oral comprehension in their classes. An analysis of the responses will make it possible to answer the following questions: what is the profile of primary school teachers and secondary school teachers in France? What are their needs and objectives? Are they capable of teaching English pronunciation efficiently and what can we objectively expect from them?.