© 1986 by Oxford University Press
Articles |
A new look at phonological ‘redundancy’
Gerry Abbott has been teaching EFL since 1958. He taught for four years in Thailand and served two years as British Council Education Officer in Jordan, before taking up his current position as Lecturer at Manchester University. During leaves of absence, he has worked at Makerere University, Kampala, P.D.R. Yemen, and Sarawak, where he was English Language Adviser for two years. Other ELT assignments have taken him to Spain, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Algeria, KwaZulu, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Pakistan. He is at present on leave of absence in Cameroon.
The author argues that certain concepts of redundancy at the phonological level are mistaken or misapplied. The nature of redundancy in speech is discussed, and three fallacies'are examined. The effect on intelligibility of cumulative deviations from a norm is then illustrated. In conclusion it is suggested that though learners should be sensitized to other varieties of English, teachers should also provide a model of pronunciation that conforms to a widely intelligible standard.