Rehabilitating a Fossilized Pronunciation Error: the /v/ and /w/, Contrast by Using the Audio-Articulation Method in Teacher Training in Turkey

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the applicability of a pronunciation teachingand correction case entitled the audio-articulation method, developed by Demirezen (2003,2004), in the field of teacher training in which there is a scarcity of such methods. The audio-articulation method is a fossilized pronunciation mistake breaker, moving raising awareness of a fossilized mistake to perception via listening to oral practice. This method integratespronunciation practicing into oral communication in the context of speaking by means ofchain drills, substitution drills, repetition drills, inflection drills, replacement drills,restatement drills, completion drills, transposition drills, expansion drills, contraction drills,transformation drills, integration drills, rejoinder drills, restoration drills, question-answer drills, and language games are of great help in this respect. In addition, listen and imitatetechnique with mirroring, tracking, and echoing (shadowing), developmental approximationdrills, and explanation techniques are all practiced, repeated in form of exhortations withoutboring the students. The applications of this method and related exercises, practically appliedto experimental groups during a term of 14 weeks by Murat Hi mano lu (2004) in a doctoraldissertation, and it has been demonstrated that its has significant rehabilitating potentiality incorrecting the pronunciation errors of non-native speaking English language teachers andstudent teachers in Turkey.