English Pronunciation Teaching Research Articles

The Impact of Shadowing Technique on Tertiary Students’ English Pronunciation

In the realm of English teaching and learning especially for those of non-native English users, English pronunciation instruction always calls for various techniques which can meet students’ conditions that are naturally affiliated with their psychological and cultural complexities. Thus, the present study aimed at examining the impact of one of English pronunciation instruction techniques, the so-called shadowing technique, on tertiary students’ English pronunciation at IAIN Curup, Bengkulu, Indonesia. An experimental study was conducted by engaging 40 tertiary English students selected randomly. They were split into two groups, wherein 20 students were taught English pronunciation using shadowing technique, and the rest 20 students were taught English pronunciation using a conventional technique. This study revealed that shadowing technique had a positive and significant impact on students’ English pronunciation. Their English pronunciation improvement encompassed various components such as monophthongs, diphthongs, triphthongs, semi-vowels, consonants, consonant cluster sounds, strong and weak forms, linking phonemes, syllable stresses, word stresses, sentence stresses, rhythm, pitch and intonation. Further studies are expected to scrutinize the effect of shadowing technique on English pronunciation by involving more samples, making use of gender difference as a moderator variable, and testing the retention of English pronunciation improvement.

Pre-service teachers’ beliefs about second language pronunciation teaching, their experience, and speech assessments

Teacher cognition has attracted increased attention among second language (L2) researchers and practitioners, likely because of its potential consequences for classroom practices, such as teaching and assessment. Prior research has revealed links between teacher beliefs about pronunciation teaching and teachers’ own experience (e.g. amount of teacher training and teaching experience). However, no research has to date focused on how teachers’ experience and their beliefs are intertwined, possibly affecting teacher assessments of L2 speakers’ pronunciation. For this study, 77 Japanese pre-service teachers of English completed an online questionnaire examining their beliefs about the teaching of English pronunciation and eliciting details about their L2 teaching and learning experience. Additionally, pre-service teachers assessed 40 Japanese secondary school students performing an extemporaneous speech task, rating these speakers for comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency. Results showed that pre-service teachers could be categorized into two distinct profiles, defined by joint contributions of pre-service teachers’ experience (a mixture of language learning/teaching experience and pronunciation-related instruction) and their beliefs (teachability of L2 pronunciation and approaches to its teaching). Pre-service teachers with more experience appeared to be more skeptical about how (easily) L2 pronunciation can be learned and taught and also provided harsher accentedness ratings, compared to pre-service teachers with less experience, revealing links between experience, beliefs, and speech assessments. Taken together, the findings reveal how pre-service teachers’ experience might shape their beliefs and assessments, implying that teacher educators must encourage future teachers to hold positive views about the teachability of L2 pronunciation by shifting their attention toward communicatively oriented dimensions of L2 speech and by providing teachers with pedagogical skills to target these dimensions.

Book Review: English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives, Pennington MC, Rogerson-Revell P. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. pp. 500.

Book Review: English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives, Pennington MC, Rogerson-Revell P. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. pp. 500.

Developing and evaluating a flipped corpus-aided English pronunciation teaching approach for pre-service teachers in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This study aimed to develop a corpus-aided pronunciation teacher-training programme and examine the effectiveness of a corpus-aided pronunciation teaching approach in English classrooms in Hong Kong. A workshop was conducted for 86 participants to introduce several English learner corpora. After the workshop, eight volunteer participants, pre-service teachers in Hong Kong, were paired off, entered into a seven-stage corpus-aided pronunciation teacher programme and attended interviews. One pair was selected to give a trial lesson, and 13 primary school students were invited to evaluate this lesson. The results revealed that the training provided sufficient knowledge about corpus-aided pronunciation teaching and task design. The pre-service teachers expressed a strong willingness to use corpus data as examples to raise students’ awareness of commonly mispronounced sounds. They agreed that the flipped instruction component was effective. Of the 13 primary school students, 83.33% agreed that they learned how to pronounce the target sounds correctly, and 75% were able to identify their mispronounced sounds via the corpus-aided teaching method. The findings will not only provide pre-service teachers with examples of corpus-aided pronunciation lesson plans and materials but also contribute to integrating the flipped classroom approach into teacher education programmes.

The Effects of Explicit English Pronunciation Instruction on Listening Comprehension among Thai EFL Students Majoring in Airline Business

The Effects of Explicit English Pronunciation Instruction on Listening Comprehension among Thai EFL Students Majoring in Airline Business

The Analysis of Teaching English Pronunciation at Young Learners

The aim of this study is to describe the technique that teacher use in teaching English pronunciation to young learners and the difficulties in teaching pronunciation for young learners at SD Negeri 82 Parepare. The sample of this study is the teacher and students at 5th Grade of SD Negeri 82 Parepare. The research method used in this study is a descriptive qualitative research. The instruments used in this study are observation checklist, list of questions, and document. First, observation is done in order to choose participants and to look the activity in the class, whereas interview is conducted in order to have other information, and document conducted to support data of this research. From the result of data analysis, it is found that the teacher used two techniques in teaching English pronunciation; drill and visual aids techniques. In drill technique the teacher used repetition drill, whereas in visual aids teacher use a picture. Those techniques still effective for young learners. However, this study gives suggestion to all teachers who teach pronunciation as reference and researchers to investigate the same research about teaching pronunciation. From the observation and interview with the teacher and some student, it found that there are some difficulties in teaching and learning pronounciation. It is luck of media to use in teaching process, the influence of student’s mother tongue, and uninterested student in learn English.

Review of Pennington & Rogerson-Revell (2019): English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives

This article reviews English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives

The Supra Tutor

Abstract Pronunciation is critical for English oral language proficiency because of its immediate role in language judgments. However, effective and targeted English pronunciation instruction is scarce. Given the need for pronunciation instruction and the undeniable impact of suprasegmentals on intelligibility and on comprehensibility, the Supra Tutor, a four-module online pronunciation tutor focusing on suprasegmentals, was developed. This mixed methods study assessed the impact of the Supra Tutor on the comprehensibility of international teaching assistants (ITAs). Participants were evaluated for comprehensibility before and after training. The study also examined ITAs’ perceptions of the Supra Tutor in terms of usefulness, engagement, and overall quality. Findings indicated that the Supra Tutor can provide effective pronunciation instruction and engage learners to successfully complete the training. Research and pedagogical implications of the Supra Tutor and its contribution to pronunciation instruction are discussed.

Designing Phonetic Alphabets for Bahasa Indonesia (PABI) for the teaching of intelligible English pronunciation in Indonesia

The sociolinguistic development of English has placed a greater emphasis on intelligibility as the ultimate goal of pronunciation instruction. However, various studies have indicated that English pronunciation of Indonesian English learners was not satisfactory due to difficulties in learning English pronunciation and lack of emphasis given to the teaching of English pronunciation in English classrooms in Indonesia. In this paper we propose the development of Phonetic Alphabets for Bahasa Indonesia (PABI). This practical instrument allows English teachers and students in Indonesia to transcribe the pronunciations of English words into phonetic transcription with locally-appropriate readability and accessibility without compromising the pronunciation intelligibility. The development of PABI started with contrastive analysis of common phonemes in the two languages, i.e., English and Bahasa Indonesia (BI). Next, we identified the English phonemes missing in Bahasa Indonesia which English learners in Indonesia have to conceptualise. We then located those English sound ‘pairs’ which seem identical to Indonesians and are thus used interchangeably in BI. A corpus of 30,000 commonly used English words was transcribed in PABI using a computer software IPA to L1PA developed by Rahman and Bhattacharya (2020). Proposals to modify the IPA to suit the BI sound system entailed the adjustments in the consonant phonemes, vowel phonemes, and cluster sounds. These adjustments are expected to improve the readability and accessibility of the conventional IPA in facilitating the teaching and learning of intelligible English pronunciation in Indonesia. Practical uses of the PABI guidelines are drawn to improve its utility. Implications for the development of context sensitive and locally-appropriate pronunciation teaching and learning are drawn based on the findings.

The Process in Which a Teacher’s Belief and Practice Change in English Pronunciation Teaching

The Process in Which a Teacher’s Belief and Practice Change in English Pronunciation Teaching

ROLE OF MANUALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND LEXIS OF FUTURE EFL TEACHERS

The article reveals possible types of lexical and pronunciation practice activities and tasks at higher education. The analysis of the activities was conducted on the basis of compulsory practical English courses at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. The article also explicates the significance of the use of educators’ practical manuals for teaching English pronunciation and lexis at higher education. It proves that teaching manuals help to adapt the main information from the course books according to the needs and abilities of future EFL teachers. It depicts that most of the analysed activities and tasks can be divided into groups due to the development of productive (speaking and writing) and receptive (listening and reading) skills. It points out that lexis and pronunciation are the main bases of any communication. The study claims that the pronunciation tasks can be divided as the following: articulation gymnastics, development of listening skills, formation of pronunciation skills. The lexis activities and tasks may cover the following route map of the lesson: pre-text, text and post text tasks. Nevertheless, lexis does not comprise only the information on the use of the essential vocabulary; the grammar aspects of language should be taken into account.

Using computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (CAPT) in English pronunciation instruction: A study on the impact and the Teacher’s role

Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Teaching (CAPT) provides EFL teachers with more alternatives to help learners who have serious problems in learning pronunciation. CAPT also provides EFL learners with a private, stress-free environment where they can have access to an enormous amount of input and repetitive practice pronunciation at their own pace. This study investigated Iranian teachers’ role in using CAPT in teaching pronunciation. It also examined whether using CAPT enhanced a better English pronunciation instruction among Iranian sophomore EFL learners. The researchers used Pronunciation Power 2 (PP2) for this objective. First, a qualitative method was used. It involved interviews with a volunteer sample of three males and two females, with a total of five participants from one of the Azad Universities of Iran. The researchers used convenience sampling method for this study because participants were selected voluntarily. The researchers used semi-structured interview questions as the instrument of qualitative method. The data were collected and analyzed. The qualitative data analysis was done through reducing and displaying the collected data and drawing conclusions from the collected data. The findings of qualitative method indicated that PP2 provided appropriate teaching resources for teachers and met their teaching needs. PP2 also changed teachers’ role from a dispenser of information to a facilitator of information. Second, a quantitative method was followed in which two groups of Iranian learners (one experimental and one control) participated in this research. The study sample involved 66 females and 34 males, with a total of 100 participants who were selected as convenient sample. Participants were exposed to the treatment of a CAPT teacher and a non-CAPT teacher. The researchers administered a pre-test as well as a post-test of English pronunciation to both groups. The data were analyzed through running the Paired Samples T-test method. The findings of quantitative research indicated significant pronunciation improvement in the experimental group of the learners who received CAPT instruction from their teachers.

Using Facebook in Blended Learning in Vietnamese Undergraduate Students

The study investigated the use of Facebook as an educational tool as well as the influence of Facebook integration into blended learning environment on English pronunciation teaching and learning activities. The subjects for the study consisted of 30 students who were the first-year English majors at Thai Nguyen University of Education. They were divided into two groups: the experimental group and the traditional group. Besides, there was a student teacher from the same university to be the subject of the experimental group. A combination of qualitative, quantitative and experimental approaches was employed to collect data and students’ views on this model. This allowed the researcher to get hold of a transformation in students’ pronunciation competence and their attitudes towards a blended format with supporting a social networking site (Facebook). The findings of the study indicate that Facebook retains outstanding features to offer a professional online course for English pronunciation learning, such as live lectures, group discussions, schedule events and etc. Furthermore, Facebook benefits the teachers in managing students’ learning autonomy so that the teacher is likely to grasp the ability of individuals in a short time. However, the use of Facebook still remains obstacles in the path of carrying out English pronunciation activities, and when putting it into blended-learning, the model handles these obstacles and limitations in the current learning and teaching of English pronunciation as well.

A content analysis on articles related to English (L2) pronunciation teaching

This study aimed at analyzing the articles related to English (L2) pronunciation teaching written between 2012 and 2017. To achieve this purpose, 106 articles related to English (L2) pronunciation teaching published in fourteen well-known international journals in the field of foreign language learning and teaching were examined. These fourteen international journals were indexed by SSCI (f=7), ERIC (f=4), EBSCO (f=2) and MLA (f=1) databases in international platforms. These 106 articles related to English (L2) pronunciation teaching were analyzed in terms of research type, research topic, target population, sample selection method, sample size, research method, data collection method, data analysis method, language of articles, year of publication, authors, number of references, and most frequently used keywords. The scale developed by Yagiz, Aydin & Akdemir (2016) was adapted and utilized to collect data on the content of articles related to English (L2) pronunciation teaching. The results displayed the general scope of research studies with respect to English (L2) pronunciation teaching in international contexts.

An ELF-based Syllabus for Teaching English Pronunciation to Native Bengali Speakers (NBS)

An ELF-based Syllabus for Teaching English Pronunciation to Native Bengali Speakers (NBS)

How the Teaching of English Pronunciation can be improved in Pre-service Training Institutions; A study at Wesley College of Education, Kumasi, Ghana

The focus of this research was to discover how the teaching of English pronunciation in the pre-service training institutions in Ghana could be improved. It was a study at Wesley College of Education, Kumasi, Ghana. The purposive sampling method was employed to select three tutors of English and twenty students for the study. Interviews and observations were done to gather information. As part of the findings; Pronunciation teaching must be included in course outlines of the colleges of Education. The Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) programme should factor in pronunciation when suggesting the review of the course outlines of the Colleges of Education (which are being transformed into University Colleges as of the preparation time of this paper). This will contribute to improving pronunciation teaching. Also, Pronunciation must be well taught at the basic level as the pupils grow with the knowledge and in-turn pass it on to other pupils/students in Ghana. This is because students of the Colleges of Education, complete their course only to go and teach the pupils in basic schools. It is obvious that when pronunciation is not well taught at the basic level, it goes a long way to affect individuals even unto adulthood. In addition, better methods of teaching pronunciation, if employed, will help improve it. Again, a campus FM should be established and utilized appropriately to educate and improve pronunciation. Teaching pronunciation through the media can be helpful if only it is carefully planned. In addition, the language laboratory stereotyped for only the French students, should be upgraded to a standard language laboratory where all other language teachers and student-teachers will benefit from. In sum, if all who may need to contribute to ensure the improvement of pronunciation teaching play their role well, its improvement will become a reality.

Flipped Demonstration Program for Kindergarten Prospective Teachers’ English Pronunciation Learning and Teaching

This research aimed to develop KG prospective teacher’s English pronunciation skills as well as improve their English pronunciation teaching performance to KG kids. The research design was one group pre and post-test quasi-experimental design. The participants were 72 2nd year KG prospective teachers at Ismailia Faculty of Education in Suez Canal University. In fulfillment of their future career’s basic needs as language teachers for young learners, this research was oriented towards the participants’ English pronunciation learning and teaching. A proposed program was developed and implemented via the use of Flipped Demonstration as an integrated pedagogical approach. There are two modules for the proposed program. Module one is Pronunciation Learning (the basic pronunciation skills needed by the KG prospective teachers) and module two is Pronunciation Teaching (the practical adapted techniques for teaching pronunciation to KG kids). Three tools were developed, validated and implemented by the researchers. They were: 1) English Pronunciation Skills Test, 2) Performance Observation Sheet for KG English Pronunciation Teaching and 3) Open Interviews with the participants by the end of experimentation. The findings revealed that the proposed program had a significant positive effect on the 2nd year KG prospective teachers’ Pronunciation Learning and Teaching.

Teaching English Compound Noun Stress

The aim of this research paper is to scrutinize the teaching of English pronunciation based on English compound noun stress at secondary school. In fact, the teaching of compound noun stress has not been highlighted by previous scholars. In addition, teaching strategies based on this item have not been taken into account by INRAP and E.N.S in the course of phonetics and phonology. As a result, no teacher is able to teach compound noun stress and no learner is able to practice this language item. Therefore, our practical suggestions are made of teaching and learning strategies, a set of exercises and a sample of a teaching card to encourage teachers to deal with compound noun stress. This study is an attempt to show the parallel between the techniques of teaching of reading and that of compound noun stress.

A Mixed Method Study of Teachers’ Attitudes towards Computer Pronunciation Software in Teaching English Pronunciation

A Mixed Method Study of Teachers’ Attitudes towards Computer Pronunciation Software in Teaching English Pronunciation

A Change in English Pronunciation Teaching by a Novice

A Change in English Pronunciation Teaching by a Novice