Pronunciation Instruction Can Improve L2 Learners’ Bottom‐Up Processing for Listening

Abstract

AbstractListening is widely regarded as an important skill that is difficult and necessary to teach in L2 classrooms. Listening requires both top‐down and bottom‐up processing, yet pedagogical techniques for the latter are often lacking. This study explores the efficacy of pronunciation instruction (PI) for improving learners’ bottom‐up processing. The study recruited 116 relatively novice learners of Spanish as a foreign language and provided the experimental groups with brief lessons in PI emphasizing segmental or suprasegmental features followed by production‐focused or perception‐focused practice. Learners’ bottom‐up processing skill was assessed with a sentence‐level dictation task. Learners given PI on suprasegmental features followed by perception‐focused practice found target language speech to be more intelligible than controls, indicating that they had improved their bottom‐up processing. However, learners given PI on segmental features followed by production‐focused practice found target language speech to be more comprehensible. The results indicate that PI is a worthwhile intervention for reasons that go beyond pronunciation, even when instructional time is limited, and that a range of features and practice types should be included in PI to improve listening skills.