“You have a bit of an accent” – teaching pronunciation to Slovenian learners of French as a foreign language

Abstract

The objective of the article is to explain some of the concepts used in teaching pronunciation in French classes, French being a foreign language. Some studies are presented which could be potentially important for the Slovenian context since they have been carried out with speakers of Slavic languages. The paper also focuses on the analysis of chapters in textbooks that deal with phonetics. Six textbooks are analysed: two for children, two for adolescents, and two for adult students. The hypothesis under consideration is that the contents do not always prove to be appropriate for the elimination of mistakes made by Slovenian speakers of French, which is proved to be correct. Finally, some suggestions for more effective teaching of pronunciation are made.