Ans.2.

Teaching of pronunciation in a second/ foreign language is important because second

language is generally learnt later in life, when the learner has already mastered his/ her own
language, which may influence the pronunciation of the second language in a number of
ways.

It is generally found that Indian learners of English have a tendency to introduce a vowel
sound in English words where it is not needed at all. For instance, they pronounce glow (/
/) as / /, blue (/ /) as / / and snake (/ /) as / /.
Besides, in India, English under the influence of local and regional languages such as
Punjabi, Malayalam and Bangla has developed a variety of accents. For example, in
Malayalam accent, a / / is pronounce as / /, whereas in Bangla accent, / / and / /
are used in the positions that are due for other vowels. In Bangla talk (/ /) is pronounced
as / / and hope (/ /) is pronounced as / /. Therefore, to shelve this confusion,
teaching of pronunciation in a second/ foreign language is important.

According to me, it is not correct to assume that teaching pronunciation is not necessary in a
first language setting as even there variations in speech can be found. For example, an Irish
speaker of English has a tendency to use / / instead of / /.i.e. Shakespeare (/ /)
Is pronounced as / /, whereas a Scottish speaker of English has a tendency to use
/ / instead of / / and even / / i.e. thank (/ /) is pronounced as / /. Therefore,
teaching of pronunciation is equally relevant in a first language setting.