Native and Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers’ Expectations of Teacher’s Manuals Accompanying General English and Pronunciation Skills Books - Study on Teachers’ Use of Printed vs Online Manuals

Oct 15, 2026

Explores how native and nonnative English-speaking teachers expect teacher’s manuals to support general English and pronunciation skills books, and how they evaluate printed versus online manuals. Using a mixed-methods design with an online survey and two interviews, the study finds teachers want manuals to explain which pronunciation features to teach and how to present them effectively. Most teachers prefer online manuals for their technological design, and value greater, multi-modal guidance (printable text, audio, or video) for accessibility and practical classroom use.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Study Purpose and Design

Teachers’ Expectations of Teacher’s Manuals

Guidance on Pronunciation Features and Presentation

Evaluation of Printed vs Online Manuals

Implications for Online Manual Use

Background: Barriers to Pronunciation Teaching

Limited Training and Unclear Pedagogy

Curriculum Incentives and Student Diagnostics

Teacher Confidence and Competence

The Role and Status of Teacher’s Manuals in Teaching

Native and Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers’ Expectations of Teacher’s Manuals Accompanying General English and Pronunciation Skills Books This study explores native and nonnative English-speaking teachers’ expectations of teacher’s manuals accompanying general English skills books and pronunciation teaching books, as well as their impressionistic evaluation of a printed and online teacher’s manual. The study has a mixed-methods design incorporating an online survey and 2 interviews. Findings showed that teachers expected a teacher’s manual to provide additional guidance on which pronunciation features to teach and how to present them effectively. The online teacher’s manual was preferred over the printed one by most of the teachers because of its technological design features. This study suggests that both native and nonnative English-speaking teachers welcome online manuals because of their increased accessibility and practicality. Additionally, greater amounts of guidance can be given in an online teacher’s manual and this guidance can be presented in different modalities, such as in printable text, audio, or video. esearch shows that teachers may be reluctant to teach second Rla20ng05u)ageTh(Le2re) proasonnsuncfoiratiothins r(Burneluctsan, 2006ce ar;eDerwmostinlyg&accMouunntreod, for by teachers’ lack of training on pronunciation and pronunciation teaching pedagogy (Foote, Holtby, & Derwing, 2011; Macdonald, 2002) . Although teachers mostly express a desire for more professional training in pronunciation teaching (Breitkreutz, Derwing, & Rossiter, 2001; Burns, 2006), lack of sufficient training may lead to teachers’ not being sure about what is achievable (Derwing & Munro, The CATESOL Journal 30.1 • 2018 • 113 2005), not feeling comfortable about setting the teaching priorities (Foote, Holtby, & Derwing, 2011), and not having clear ideas about how to teach pronunciation (Couper, 2017) . According to Derwing (2008), people who teach pronunciation are supposed to be knowledgeable about L2 acquisition and trained in teaching pronunciation, speaking, and listening. However, researchers acknowledge that this is often not the case. Some instructors take phonetics and phonology courses, but they are not trained in teaching pronunciation (Couper, 2017). Therefore, those teachers may have themisconception that the focus of teaching pronunciation involves little more than teaching phonetic symbols. Some teachers state that because their teaching curricula do not encourage or assess pronunciation skills, they have little motivation to teach pronunciation and therefore tend to skip it (Macdonald, 2002). Other teachers express difficulties in diagnosing students’ pronunciation problems unless there is a clear problem hindering their understanding of a student. These teachers may avoid teaching pronunciation unless there is a communication breakdown related to pronunciation, and they may prefer teaching only those pronunciation features that they feel knowledgeable or confident about, regardless of whether the features are necessary. According to Couper (2017), teachers expressed their lack of competence in explaining what is problematic in students’ pronunciation and their need to learn ways to do so. In the same study, Uruguayan teachers, especially those who were not confident in their own pronunciation, chose to avoid teaching certain suprasegmental features such as intonation and stress. As one of the teachers said,“I don’t feel confident in intonation so it’s better not to teach it”(p. 38) . Other reasons may also contribute to teachers’ feeling less willing to teach pronunciation. For instance, novice teachers, regardless of their language background, may feel nervous about uncertainties that arise while they are teaching, how to structure the course in general, not having sufficient knowledge to explain content-related questions, or not being able to create additional examples or exercises other than the o

FAQs

What are teachers’ main expectations for pronunciation teacher’s manuals?

Teachers expect manuals to provide additional guidance on which pronunciation features to teach and how to present them effectively.

Why do many teachers prefer online teacher’s manuals over printed ones?

Most teachers prefer online manuals because of their technological design features, which improve accessibility and practicality.

How can online manuals extend the kind of guidance teachers receive?

Online manuals can offer more guidance and present it in different modalities, such as printable text, audio, or video.

Oct 15, 2026

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