Reflective Narrative Review of Pronunciation Pedagogy in Adult English Language Teaching From 2010 to 2026

Pronunciation has gained prominence in adult English language teaching, but research on its goals, instructional focus, technology, teacher knowledge, models, and assessment is often discussed separately. This article presents a reflective narrative review of pronunciation pedagogy in adult ESL/EFL education. Guided by the Intelligibility Principle and informed by English as a lingua franca and World Englishes, the review addresses research published from 2010 to September 2026 alongside foundational studies. The reflection is based on 86 scholarly works: 67 published from 2010 to 2026 and 19 earlier foundational works. Sources were selected purposively through iterative Google Scholar searches and citation chaining, then examined through thematic coding and cross-study comparison. The field has moved from native-like accent targets toward intelligibility and comprehensibility; segmental and suprasegmental instruction is most useful when integrated around learner needs; computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) expand practice but require teacher mediation; many teachers remain underprepared; native-speaker norms continue despite English as a lingua franca and World Englishes perspectives; and assessment increasingly values communicative success while facing rater and algorithmic bias. The review contributes an integrated account of these connected developments and proposes practical priorities for teacher education, technology use, classroom assessment, and future research.