Subject: foreign language culture

conference organizer : faculty of foreign languages laboratory of communicative teaching through cultural interaction . kursk state pedagogical university . 33 radischev street , kursk 305004 , russia tel . ( 071 22 ) 2-73 - 61 fax . ( 0712 ) 568461 e-mail : kgpu @ home . sovtest . ru international conference : the voice of the foreign language culture tentatively scheduled for october 12-16 , 1998 at kursk state pedagogical university , russia . goal : defining general approaches taken by russian and foreign methodologists to the problem of communicative pronunciation teaching . foreign language pronunciation , vital for communication , is a complex phenomenon difficult to investigate and not readily yielding to teaching guidance . no wonder , occasionally it will be declared irrelevant and the attention of the methodologists and teachers is concentrated on more learnable items : grammar and vocabulary . indeed , either the intuitive - imitative approach with its attention to the accuracy of pronunciation or the analytic - linguistic approach with its articulatory and contrastive information , or the cognitive approach which gives emphases to grammar , or the natural approach and the silent way with the attention to the supra - segmental structures have not met the needs of communication . however , this kind of neglect of pronunciation teaching is of short duration and it could not be otherwise for evident reasons . it is pronunciation that reflects the national character , culture and spirit of the nation , the social characteristics of the speaker , their aims , motives and emotions . you would not really respond adequately to what is being said without the proper awareness of the implications of the pronunciation system . moreover , even in the recognition of grammar and lexical units we mainly depend on pronunciation parameters . in fact , all speech activities have pronunciation roots . that is why we can not neglect teaching pronunciation if we want to prepare our students for actual communication . in the communicative approach adhered to in this institution , we demand a communicative paradigm of pronunciation teaching . it implies both the communicative aim of teaching and structuring the teaching process in accordance with the natural mechanisms of pronunciation acquisition . there is evidence that communicative approach to teaching pronunciation is gaining universal support . according to m . celces - murcia , d . m . brinton , j . m . goodwin in " teaching pronunciation , " _ cup _ , 1996 . . . teaching supra-segmental features ( rhythm , stress and intonation in a discourse context was the optimal way to organize a short - term pronunciation course . this idea sounds promising for a more fundamental course if we take into account the psychological nature of pronunciation acquisition . the objectives of the conference are as follows : emphasize social importance and necessity of correct pronunciation point out general problems of teaching fl pronunciation develop a communicative syllabus for teaching fl pronunciation and specify the teaching units and the context of teaching definine communicative strategies for pronunciation teaching specify the communicative model for teaching pronunciation and its correlation with natural speech mechanisms define the links of fl culture and pronunciation teaching analyze the communicative model of pronunciation teaching as a component of teacher education outline the linguistic foundation of communicative fl pronunciation teaching identify the links between pronunciation and grammar , vocabulary and pragmatic context . discussion groups on suggested topics : 1 . the social load and the status of pronunciation in multi-cultural society . 2 . pronunciation as an indicator of language proficiency and cultural level . 3 . communicative teaching of pronunciation as a basis for teaching fl speech . 4 . functional and linguistic aspects of pronunciation teaching . 5 . techniques of communicative teaching of fl pronunciation . we would be delighted to discuss the problems and share our experience with those of similar interests . we sincerely hope that the integral efforts of the participants of the conference will result in solving some of the problems and enrich our practical competence . first call for papers . the faculty of foreign languages and the laboratory of communicative fl teaching through cultural interaction at kursk state pedagogical university ( russia ) cordially invite colleagues from asia , africa , america and europe to participate in their international conference . we desire to share achievements , concerns and exchange expertise in teaching english , german and french phonetics and pronunciation . all teachers and methodologists are welcome to attend . papers of 2000 words will be published subsequently in the conference proceedings . final date for acceptance of applications and papers to the above address by 1 july 1998 . kursk , a city lacated 450 km to the south of moscow , is one of the oldest cities in russia with a number of attractions interesting from historical and cultural points of view . accomodation will be provided at the hotel kursk ( 40-60 $ per night ) . participants will also be offered to live in the appartments with russian families and the students ' dormitory . foreign particapants will be met in moscow and accompanied to kursk if required . we look forward to hearing from you . sincerely , nickolay smakhtin dean of the faculty of foreign languages vyacheslav buzhinsky head of the english language department
