Exploring Pronunciation Teaching: A Case Study of Practices and Perceptions in an English Classroom

Despite its direct impact on intelligibility and fluency, pronunciation frequently receives minimal attention in English language classrooms. This study explores the current state of pronunciation teaching in a selected English bilingual class at a Slovak high school. It specifically investigates how a confident English language teacher handles pronunciation instruction regarding its extent, content, integration, models, materials, and techniques. Additionally, it examines the attitudes, perceptions, motivations, and reflections of both the participating teacher and students. A qualitative case study approach integrated data from three research methods: observations, a teacher interview, and a focus group interview. These data were triangulated to achieve in-depth understanding of the situation. While findings from a small-scale case study are not generalisable, they can offer valuable insights in similar contexts in English language pronunciation instruction. While the teacher confidently incorporated pronunciation, their approach had significant weaknesses: largely intuitive, unsystematic, and decontextualized tasks. This repetitive practice reduced effectiveness and lacked productive engagement. Both teacher and learners did not critically reflect on these shortcomings, highlighting a crucial need to raise awareness and address L1 interference. The findings suggest that a more focused methodological teacher training can substantially improve pronunciation instruction in similar contexts.