English Phonetics and Teacher Training: Designing a Phonetics Course for Japanese Preservice Teachers

Abstract

This paper presents a design for a phonetics course specifically tailored to Japanese preservice teachers. It suggests using General American as a production model, while presenting diverse varieties for reception. Critically, such a course must impart three components: declarative knowledge of phonetics, procedural knowledge of pronunciation teaching, and sufficient pronunciation and listening training. Rather than covering every pronunciation detail, prioritizing features that contribute to intelligibility is necessary. Through this course, preservice teachers are expected to become equipped with knowledge and techniques for teaching English pronunciation and to develop intelligible pronunciation to serve as good models for their students.