Toward a Ghana-Responsive Pronunciation Pedagogy:Intelligibility, Ghanaian English and Instructional Priorities

Abstract

Pronunciation teaching in Ghana sits at the intersection of two legitimate educational demands: learners need speech that functions effectively across local and international settings, while Ghanaian English has developed systematic phonological characteristics that should not be treated automatically as defective approximations to British or North American norms. This article develops a Ghana-responsive framework for pronunciation pedagogy through a critical narrative synthesis of recent research on L2 pronunciation, intelligibility and phonetic training, combined with Ghana-specific work on English phonology, rhythm, vowel quality, learner difficulties and culturally responsive speech assessment. The article argues that the central pedagogical question is not whether a pronunciation feature differs from an external native-speaker norm, but whether it imposes a recurrent communicative cost, how stable it is within Ghanaian English, how widely it travels across interlocutor groups, and how amenable it is to instruction. On this basis, a four-criterion pronunciation priority framework is proposed, distinguishing features that can be retained and legitimised, features that require repertoire expansion, and features that warrant focused intervention. The framework is translated into a six-stage classroom cycle linking diagnosis, noticing, perception, guided production, communicative transfer and reflective recycling. The discussion further recommends balanced treatment of segmentals and suprasegmentals, explicit phonetic awareness, multi-accent listening, carefully targeted feedback, learner self-recording and cautious use of automatic speech technologies. The paper concludes that a defensible pronunciation pedagogy for Ghana should pursue intelligibility and communicative adaptability without equating intelligible Ghanaian accent features with error.