The Articulatory approach to teaching pronunciation considers learning how to pronounce a second language to be a motor skill which most students are not in a position to develop based on self-evaluation of their production.
The role of the teacher is therefore to provide feedback on students' performance as part of coaching them in the movements of the vocal tract articulators (tongue, jaw, lips, etc.)
Proponents of the articulatory approach argue that it is more efficient to begin by working on the production of L2 sounds directly (as a motor skill rather than an imitative task) and that this leads to improved L2 perception.
[5] In the late nineteenth century, Henry Sweet argued for the coaching of students in the use of their articulators: "Those who try to learn new sounds by ear alone, without any systematic training in the use of their vocal organs, generally succeed only partially.
"[6] Similarly, the phonetician J. C. Catford presented readers with "a series of simple introspective experiments [to be] carried out inside their own vocal tracts, their own throats and mouths.