PRONUNCIATION STRATEGIES AND ORAL COMMUNICATION NEEDS OF THE PROSPECTIVE EMI INSTRUCTORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KRAGUJEVAC

Abstract

As EMI continues to expand across higher education worldwide, understanding instructors’ linguistic needs and pronunciation practices has become increasingly important for ensuring effective teaching in multilingual classroom settings. Hence, the current study investigates EMI prospective instructors’ views on oral communication needs and pronunciation strategy use before, during and after a speaking activity. A total of twenty-two lecturers from eight faculties of the University of Kragujevac, who were attending an EMI training program funded by the Foundation Tempus, completed two questionnaires related to the explored issues. The results of the relevant statistical testing show that the instructors understand the importance of oral communication skills, especially clarity, confidence and effective presentation delivery. However, more experienced instructors rated speaking abilities lower and reported a reduced use of pre-speaking pronunciation strategies when compared to less experienced colleagues. No significant group differences were found for strategies used during and after the speaking activities, yet the reflective strategies were consistently low across all participants. The findings indicate that even though EMI trainees recognize the importance of intelligible communication, they differ in confidence and strategies employed. The pedagogical implications of the study highlight the need for structured pronunciation training on suprasegmentals and reflective strategy use in future EMI training programs.