Intelligibility does not depend on having a standard accent. In this presentation, (register here now!) I will suggest that it is possible to teach pronunciation in a way which is more flexible and accepting of different accents. The presentation will present practical teaching ideas (including ‘Pair Squares’, which can be downloaded here) , while at the same time introducing four principles for accent-friendly pronunciation teaching:
1 ‘Effective’ beats ‘correct’
2 If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it
3 Make the difference you need
4 Speak locally, hear globally
You can download the slides here!