What research is the Pron Planner based on?
See the ‘About this tool’ tab.
Does the Pron Planner cover both productive and receptive competence?
At the moment, the Pron Planner focuses on priorities for learners’ productive competence, in other words, the aspect of language learning typically called ‘pronunciation’ (as opposed to receptive competence, or listening to and understanding others’ speech).
Why doesn’t the Pron Planner include recordings?
The Pron Planner is based on the principle that by far the most common use of English worldwide today is as a lingua franca, that is, between people who have different first languages but all speak English, so choose to use English as their language of communication. From this perspective, clear and effective pronunciation of English is a matter of mastering a repertoire of key features, not acquiring a particular accent. Including recordings in the Pron Planner would risk presenting one accent as a model, potentially giving the misleading impression that there is only one correct or universally intelligible way of saying things.
How can I see which pronunciation features are relevant to a particular CEFR level?
Unlike vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation features cannot be grouped by CEFR level. From the very lowest levels of proficiency, virtually any given pronunciation feature could occur in any word or phrase. For example, sounds commonly perceived as ‘more difficult’, like /ð/, occur even in high-frequency words learned by beginners, like the word ‘the’. Thus, it is generally advisable to derive priorities for pronunciation instruction based on differences between the phonology of English and of the learner’s L1, not based on the learner’s general proficiency level.
To ensure that pronunciation practice exercises are appropriate to a particular CEFR level, teachers and materials writers can first identify high-priority pronunciation features using the Pron Planner, and then find CEFR level-appropriate examples of words and phrases in which the chosen pronunciation features occur. These words and phrases can be cross-referenced using English Profile to ensure that learners are presented with examples suited to their general level of proficiency in English. Thus, the sound /b/ might be illustrated by ‘big’ at A1 level, by ‘balcony’ at B1 level or by ‘bid’ at C1-C2 level.
What does [term] mean?
See the glossary.
Why isn’t [a particular L1] included in the tool?
There are hundreds of languages in the world. The Pron Planner was launched with a small subset of these languages. More are likely to be added in future.
Why doesn’t the Pron Planner break down certain L1s into different varieties (for example, European Spanish, Mexican Spanish, etc.)?
Many languages have several significant varieties and/or standards which have different pronunciation characteristics (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese). Depending on the scholar(s) conducting a particular study, different pieces of research will take different varieties as their starting points and give accordingly different guidance. The Pron Planner assumes that different varieties have many features in common, so variation among them has been dealt with through caveats in the ‘comments’ column, for example, by noting that ‘some’ speakers ‘might’ have difficulty in certain areas. This is also reflected to some extent by the colour-coding in the ‘priority’ column, which gives some indication of how widespread a particular pronunciation difficulty is likely to be among speakers of a given L1 (red = high priority; green = generally not problematic).
Why isn’t [a particular pronunciation feature] included in the tool?
The contents of the Pron Planner are informed by research into which features of English pronunciation facilitate mutual understanding by speakers in international contexts. Underpinning this research is the principle that by far the most common use of English worldwide today is as a lingua franca, that is, between people who have different first languages but all speak English, so choose to use English as their language of communication.
In such contexts of interaction, speakers and listeners are likely to have slightly different needs and expectations than those traditionally assumed by materials and approaches which emphasise a need for ‘native-like’ pronunciation. This is the main reason why some users of the Pron Planner might feel that certain things are missing which they would normally see in ELT courses (for example, rising/falling intonation, connected speech features or schwa): such features have been demonstrated to be low-priority by research into what constitutes intelligible pronunciation in international English contexts.
One of the features in my search results is marked as low overall priority, even though it’s a high priority for learners from one particular L1 background. What should I do?
You will know which L1 backgrounds are most salient to the group you have in mind when preparing a syllabus with the Pron Planner. For example, if you are considering a class which contains 15 L1-speakers of Spanish, 2 of Turkish and 1 of Japanese, you may choose to de-prioritise something which is high-priority only for the Japanese speaker. By comparing the ‘priority’ and ‘overall priority’ columns, you can use your judgment regarding the balance of priorities and to determine what features to include in your final syllabus.
There are different ways of transcribing phonemes. Which conventions do the phonemic symbols in Pron Planner follow?
See the ‘Guide to phonemic symbols’ tab.
In my search results, how can I see which items have the highest overall priority?
Simply click the heading of the ‘Overall priority’ column on the right. This will sort the results, showing the highest priority features at the top.
Can I save or export my search results?
Currently, this is not a function of Pron Planner. It is being considered for future.
