Pronunciation teaching practices in communicative second language classes

Abstract

The objective of this research was to provide longitudinal, corpus-based evidence of actual teacher behaviour with respect to the teaching of second language (L2) pronunciation in a communicative language learning context. The data involved 40 hours of videotaped lessons from three experienced teachers recorded four times at 100-hour increments during the 400-hour programme for grade six (11- to 12-year-olds) francophone learners in Quebec, Canada. The videotaped lessons were initially transcribed and coded for individual pronunciation teaching episodes, then analysed in terms of their type, linguistic target and impact. Results demonstrated that pronunciation teaching episodes were infrequent (accounting for 10% of all language-related episodes), that pronunciation teaching targeted individual sounds (to the exclusion of other aspects of pronunciation) and that most pronunciation teaching episodes were not incorporated into lesson plans but instead involved various kinds of corrective feedback in response to individual student errors. These findings, which clarify results of previous survey-based studies of teachers' in-class behaviour, provide evidence that might be used to address teachers' concerns regarding the place, scope and role of pronunciation instruction in L2 teaching and teacher training.