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Sound Symbolism and Pronunciation Teaching: a Preliminary Study

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Investigating English Pronunciation

Abstract

The field of pronunciation teaching is increasingly benefiting from the advances taking place in other areas such as psychology and anthropology (see e.g. Baker and Trofimovich, 2006; Gatbonton and Trofimovich, 2008). In an attempt to expand the range of teaching techniques, this chapter sets out to explore the influence of using coloured phoneme symbols when teaching phonemes for the first time. In this respect, the chapter resorts to two apparently unrelated fields; first, it provides some background knowledge on sound symbolism and synaesthesia; and second, it discusses the methodology used in pronunciation teaching and connects this discussion with the findings obtained in psycholinguistic experiments on the relationship between vowel sounds and colours.

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© 2015 Pilar Mompeán-Guillamón

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Mompeán-Guillamón, P. (2015). Sound Symbolism and Pronunciation Teaching: a Preliminary Study. In: Mompean, J.A., Fouz-González, J. (eds) Investigating English Pronunciation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137509437_11

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