Pronunciation Teaching Research Articles

Value Dominants of Professional Foreign Language Training: еnvironment approach

Axiology of professional training and learning languages, both national and international, is under thorough consideration in the aspect of novel dominant values – leadership in education, culture-oriented goals of professional teaching, fruitful results, professional and communicative skills, etc. Thus, this trend needs to create optimal conditions in terms of the developing safe educational spaces for improving the effect professional language training as a whole, and to neutralize some of the negative value effects of the present day global situations of polycultural world. Methodology of this research is focused on integrative approach – cognitive, competence, communication, culture, dominant values as the basic priorities for project methods and modeling development situations of authentic communication in the aspect of language and professional skills of students. The results determined in the threefold value dominant Model reflect on the developing safe educational spaces for improving Knowledge Content and Technology (Drama) that prove the positive fruitful effects of this micro survey in the frames of professional language education, training and learning via the authors’ textbook on “Teaching pronunciation through dramatization” in accordance with the content of evaluation funds that stimulate culture self-determination of a personality and formation of polyculture picture of the world. Teaching pronunciation is positioned as an integral component of phonetic and phonological competence. While the concept of “dramatization” is described in terms of significant professional skills as additional potential for support of psychological balance and intellectual element of professional education. In conclusion the effects of dramatization in the process of teaching pronunciation/training professional skills are summarized, and the prospects of using the authors’ findings in practical classes of a foreign language training are indicated to improve professional skills in the main types of speech activity.

Development of Pronunciation Textbooks Based on Communicative Language Teaching Approach

Research has found out that speaking skill covered pronunciation as the fundamental significance in linguistic proficiency. Surprisingly, in most English Language test, pronunciation appears to be the subject that is often neglected. Despite the generous amount of media utilize to practice utterance of English syllable or words, the supply of pronunciation teaching textbook source is scarce. By employing research and development (R&D) of 4D design, this study aimed at describing the model, validity and reliability of the Pronunciation textbook for English Education students. This research involved 38 students and 2 (two) experts’ rater to examine the book based on BSNP (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan or National Education Standard Agency) criteria. The result pointed out, that the model of pronunciation book corresponded with the KKNI standard curriculum and based on BSNP Criteria. The questionnaires validation result from respondent showed that rxy is 0.64 with the category of valid, and the reliability test result from Cronbach Alfa showed that r11 is 1.04 in the level of ?1.00 with the category of very high reliability. The validity and reliability of the product were also verified by two experts’ rater and analyzed by using Aiken index technique. In this analysis, the V index showed the value of 0.91 with the category of very high (from the scale of 0.8-1.00) for the content eligibility, presentation, language and graphic. Accordingly, Pronunciation textbooks model developed based on communicative language teaching approach is valid and reliable.

Teaching segmentals and suprasegmentals

Abstract This study reports the results of a pronunciation intervention to enhance the comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness of three groups of second language (L2) learners in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) context. Three groups of first-semester EFL students at a small university in Costa Rica underwent a 10-week pronunciation intervention for segmentals, suprasegmentals, or a combination of both using explicit phonetic and phonological instruction and communicative tasks. Spontaneous-speech samples from a pretest and posttest were presented to L1 speakers of English to be rated for comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness. The group trained on suprasegmentals significantly improved comprehensibility and fluency, as opposed to the other two groups that did not improve. No groups improved in accentedness. Analyses of participants’ speech production revealed key differences that may have contributed to the perception of comprehensibility and fluency in their speech. Pedagogical implications are discussed for the implementation of explicit pronunciation instruction in intact L2 classes.

Should We Teach Pronunciation Explicitly in L2/EFL Classrooms?

The aim of this study is to discuss whether explicit teaching of English pronunciation in second language (L2) and English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms is helpful for learners or not. This study aims to review the studies on pronunciation teaching to synthesize the literature. In this way, connections between research and practice will be formed and the implications for language teaching will be mentioned. In this study, a literature review (of around 40 articles, books and book chapters) has been done first and then, in accordance with the findings, the emerging themes (e.g. intelligibility, Lingua Franca Core and students’ background) from the review were further reviewed and a synthesis is provided taking the findings regarding different perspectives into consideration. The results suggest that recently pronunciation teaching has shown great improvements and the aims of it have changed from attaining a native-like proficiency to being intelligible. The review suggests that the aim of pronunciation teaching should be to teach for functional and meaningful contexts and it should be a part of communicative approaches to provide students with a fluent speech. The findings also suggest that the focus in explicit pronunciation teaching should be on not only perception, but also production and only the relevant and useful parts of phonology should be taught to learners.

Use of ASR-Equipped Software in the Teaching of Suprasegmental Features of Pronunciation

Technology has paved the way for new modalities in language learning, teaching, and assessment. However, there is still a great deal of work to be done to develop such tools for oral communication, specifically tools that address suprasegmental features in pronunciation instruction. Therefore, this critical literature review examines how researchers have tried to create computer-assisted pronunciation training tools using automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems to aid language learners in the perception and production of suprasegmental features. We used 30 texts from 1990 to 2020 to explore how technologies have been and are currently being used to help learners develop their proficiency with suprasegmental features. Based on our thematic analysis, a persistent gap still exists between ASR-equipped software available to participants in research studies and what is available to university and classroom teachers and students. Additionally, there seems to be more development in the production of speech software for language assessment. In contrast, the translation of these tools into instructional tools for individualized learning seems to be almost non-existent. Moving forward, we recommend that more commercialized pronunciation systems utilizing ASR should be made publicly available using the technologies that are currently developed or are in development for the purposes of oral proficiency judgments.

CATATAN TENTANG PENGAJARAN LAFAL BAHASA INDONESIA TERHADAP PENUTUR JATI BAHASA JEPANG

Accurate pronunciation in learning Indonesian is one of the keys for a fluent communication and also a help in developing language skill. However, many native Japanese speakers do not pay much attention to their pronunciation. Generally, Japanese native speakers have difficulty in differentiation between /r/ and /l/, differentiation between /u/ and /ə/, pronunciation of ng /ŋ/ in syllable-initial, differentiation or pronunciation of consonants in syllable-final, and so on, in learning Indonesian. Furihata (2015) proposed his practice of teaching pronunciation for consonants in syllable-final with using the concept of mora phonemes in Japanese. This paper will discuss: (1) phonological features in Japanese, especially on mora phonemes, with focusing difference between Indonesian and Japanese, and (2) tendency of Indonesian pronunciation produced by Japanese native speakers.

TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN ENGLISH

TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN ENGLISH

PRONUNCIATION INSTRUCTION IN VIETNAMESE TERTIARY SETTINGS: INSIGHTS FROM EFL TEACHERS’ COGNITIONS AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES

This study aims at investigating teachers’ cognitions and classroom practices towards pronunciation instruction in Vietnamese tertiary EFL classrooms. Participants included 76 Vietnamese EFL teachers in some universities in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Data were collected through a questionnaire and classroom observations. The study findings showed that the teachers highlighted the importance of pronunciation teaching with a specific focus on communicative purposes. However, the results also indicated a mismatch between the teachers’ stated cognitions about pronunciation instruction and their actual classroom practices. Therefore, this study gives recommendations for further research on exploring situational factors influencing pronunciation instruction as well as the need for teacher training.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0584/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

COMPUTER-MEDIATED PRONUNCIATION TECHNIQUE IN DEVELOPING HIGH SCHOOL LANGUAGE LEARNERS: THE CASE OF PRAAT

This study aimed to examine the relationship between the effects of the traditional method and PRAAT software to teach pronunciation to female high school students in Dehloran. The design of the research was a descriptive and comparison group design to interpret the phenomena under study. Third-grade high school girls were selected based on cluster sampling and were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. The experimental received pronunciation instruction via PRAAT but the control group attended traditional classes with learning pronunciations through repetitions and practice. The participants took a pretest of pronunciation at the beginning of the intervention period; and after the intervention sessions, the same test was given to both groups in the posttest. Faunally, an attitude questionnaire was given to the experimental group eliciting their views on the use of PRAAT software in learning pronunciation. The data was gathered and analyzed through t-test analysis. The results showed that the experimental group who were taught by PRAAT outperformed significantly the control group who were taught by the traditional approach to learning English language pronunciation. Moreover, the findings indicated that the EFL students were interested in learning pronunciation via PRAAT. Implications suggest that EFL students were provided with the opportunity to practice pronunciation using pronunciation tasks via technology.

Effectiveness of Digital Technology Tools in Teaching Pronunciation to Saudi EFL Learners

The use of digital technology has become ubiquitous in every walsk of our lives. It has had a significant impact not only on social and technological aspects but also on educational areas, including (English) language teaching. Digital tools, the gift of new technologies, have proved to be an essential component of English Language Teaching (ELT). This study focused on finding out the efficacy of teaching pronunciation via digital tools (CDs, digital books, projectors, smart boards, and synchronous and asynchronous online materials) as opposed to traditional methods (printed materials, drilling, and imitating the teacher) to Saudi male EFL undergraduates. To investigate the differences, a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design (between-subjects) was used. The experimental and control groups (n = 25 in each group) were tested before and after the treatment n similar intra-sentential pronunciation activities at segmental (minimal pairs, word recognition, and consonant and vowel identification) and suprasegmental (stress patterns) levels. The results revealed that the participants in the experimental group learned pronunciation significantly better than the participants in the control group. This means that if students are exposed to digital technology tools, they will learn pronunciation better in comparison to the conventional method of teaching. The study is significant for both teachers and learners as it may help them make use of digital technology tools to improve students’ pronunciation as well as their speaking skills.

The Effects of Animated Film on Esl Learner’s Pronunciation in Secondary Education Context

Accurate and clear pronunciation plays a major role in language learning in order to communicate verbally in target language. Most secondary students in Malaysia still face difficulty in pronouncing English words correctly even though they have learned English as a second language for at least six years. This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of using animated film in enhancing pronunciation and also explore its influence towards learner’s motivation. A mixed method action research is used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. Pre-test and post-test are carried out and a paired T-test is run with SPSS to investigate the effectiveness of the teaching method towards different phonetic groups. Meanwhile, a semi-structured interview is conducted with 16 participants to identify their confidence level in word pronuncing . Results show that there are significant improvements in pronouncing ‘words with voiced and unvoiced consonant’, ‘words that look alike’ and ‘words with silent letter’ but not in ‘words with short and long vowel’ and ‘words with more than two syllables.’ It indicates that the effects of animated film in pronunciation teaching are varied towards different categories of word due to several factors. Thus, educators have to be aware of the factors that diminish the effectiveness of intervention used and overcome them for better teaching and learning process.

TEACHING PRONUNCIATION: A STUDY ON THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KHULNA, BANGLADESH

Pronunciation is an integrated and integral part of second or foreign language learning since it directly affects learners’ communicative competence as well as performance. Notwithstanding, the teaching of EFL/ESL pronunciation is still peripheral and neglected in the syllabus and classroom, especially in Khulna district in Bangladesh. It is a matter of regret that most of the school-level learners in our country are not taught English pronunciation and, hence, it is overlooked. The reasons are not far to seek. A good number of teachers in our country are not aware of the significance of teaching pronunciation and its impact on effective communication. Khulna is an industrial town, yet it is lagging behind in learning English. Although there are some government and non-government high schools here, no developed teaching and testing system of English Language is used in this region. Here the teachers follow century-old traditional testing system for writing and reading English. As for listening and speaking, there is no form of testing that can aid effective pronunciation teaching in secondary schools. Therefore, teaching pronunciation is highly ignored in this area. This paper reviews the notion of pronunciation teaching and gives a theoretical background for developing pronunciation teaching. It empirically studies the learners’ and teachers’ attitudes to the significance of accurate pronunciation teaching in English. Additionally, it reflects on their preferences and beliefs about pronunciation teaching. Finally, it provides some recommendations for effective remedial measures and feedback techniques for developing pronunciation teaching and learning in the light of the theoretical and empirical findings of the research.

Effects of Blended, Explicit and Implicit Instruction on EFL Learners in English Pronunciation Class under Emerging Technology

As the most important foreign language in China, English poses great challenge for teachers to improve the performance of ESL (English as a second language) learners through in-class instruction. Blended, explicit, and implicit instruction are three widely used approaches in English class teaching, and it may be difficult to choose which one should be used in class to help the English language learners. With audio synthesis technology applied as an enhancement for teaching, this study aims to research the three effects on English pronunciation teaching in aspects of the performance and satisfaction of English language learners. 120 English learners in China were equally divided into three groups which were instructed by blended, explicit, and implicit instruction respectively. Based on the data collected by test and questionnaire in pre-test, in-test, and post-test, the results show that the blended instruction performs best in aspects of the improvement of performance and the class satisfaction. These findings indicate the great potential of blended instruction in English language teaching and more investment should be taken to promote its application to help the Chinese to better acquire this important language.

Development of students’ spoken language in an online French course: Presentation of continuing doctoral research

Abstract The present paper describes continuing doctoral research which examines the development of oral language during an online French course in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF), and reflects on the possible influence of the online intervention on this development. The research is designed as a multiple-case study with 11 university students as participants of the research, each student forming a single case of the study. The pre-test post-test design was chosen in order to analyse students’ spoken performance before and after the intervention, and thus to assess its development. The paper outlines the results of accuracy analysis, which indicate that language performance cannot be judged solely by one aspect of CAF: many errors identified in this research seem to be a sign of the use of more complex language; and precise and accurate language without errors does not seem to be complex or fluent. The number of phonetic errors and some replies in the interviews suggest that the online course did not place enough importance on the teaching of pronunciation. These suppositions will be tested in the next stages of the research. The paper is part of the AILA Europe special issue.

Nasal phonemes and their realisation in Polish. Selected teaching problems

This article discusses the problems related to the sound realisation of the so-called nasal sounds, that is letters ą and ę, as well as the differences in the phonological interpretation of those realisations. The issue has been repeatedly raised by linguists (e.g. Zarembina 1963; Retz 1979ab; Dunaj 1991; Sawicka 1995; Nagórko 1998; Szpyra-Kozłowska 2002, and others), which proves its complexity and difficulty. The letters ą and ę can be pronounced in various ways depending on their neighbourhood (that is other letters that follow them), which causes problems in Polish language didactics and in the process of teaching of the correct Polish language pronunciation (especially when it comes to teaching Polish pronunciation to foreigners). The article mentions the methods and principles of the realisation of nasal sounds as well as inconsistencies in the phonological characteristics of the phenomenon. The article is an overview, as its aim is to compare different suggestions for the phonological interpretation. Keywords: phonetics – phonological system – nasal vowels – nasal phonemes.

The impact of functional load and cumulative errors on listeners' judgments of comprehensibility and accentedness

The Functional Load (FL) principle, in which the gravity of errors in segmentals can be estimated by how frequently two phonemes distinguish words in a language, is crucial to intelligibility-based instruction of Second Language (L2) pronunciation (Derwing & Munro, 2015; Levis, 2018). Despite its attractiveness, the evidence for broad applicability of the principle remains modest, and the cumulative effect of errors is understudied. In this paper, we investigate the impact of FL and error frequency on judgments of comprehensibility and accentedness. This study employed a database of read-aloud sentences with one, two, three, and four high and low FL errors as well as sentences with both high and low FL errors. Thirty-one native speakers of English rated the comprehensibility and accentedness of the sentences. High FL errors were associated with greater loss of comprehensibility and judgments of higher accentedness than low FL errors. Utterances with low FL errors received significantly lower comprehensibility ratings as errors increased beyond two. However, ratings of comprehensibility for high FL errors deteriorated beyond three errors. For accentedness judgments, higher error frequency affected high FL errors only. Overall, the results confirm earlier findings for the usefulness of functional load as a metric for L2 pronunciation teaching, but raise questions about whether findings for extremes on the 10-point FL hierarchy (Brown, 1988) reflect error gravity findings for the middle of the hierarchy.

The Effects of using Online Text-To Speech Tools on EFL Students’ Perceptions in Learning Pronunciation

The effects of Text to Speech tools on learning and teaching pronunciation have been emphasized. However, not many studies on the topic were conducted in the Vietnamese context. Therefore, the current study aims to (1) to verify whether the effects of TTS Tools into students’ pronunciation and (2) to verify how it effects on their pronunciation. The study was designed as an experimental study, following a mixed-methods approach, using questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data. 60 high school students took part in this investigation as participants. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in EFL students’ pronunciation in the study. The participants in the also highly perceived the positive effects of on their English pronunciation accuracy. Finally, some implications were drawn from the findings so as to enhance the quality of pronunciation teaching and learning.

Pronunciation Needs Analysis of Japanese Students

For some Japanese students, pronunciation is one of the most difficult challenges they encounter when learning a second language and yet, its importance cannot be understated. This is supported by Harmer who suggests that the most important thing about speaking English is that we should be intelligible and we should be understood by other speakers of English, whoever they are (Harmer, 2015). This paper analysed the pronunciation needs of two Japanese students (student A; an adult male and student B; an adult female) over a period of several weeks. The researcher conducted face-to-face interviews based on casual conversation topics. Each interview was recorded and then analysed, strengths and weaknesses were defined and as a result, lesson plans targeting problem areas were designed. The research concludes that an all-encompassing viewpoint of pronunciation teaching, one that draws on various approaches, was needed in order for students to achieve their language goals.

Hidden in Plain Sight: An Exploration of Learner Productions of Phonological Processes in Korean and Their Impact on Comprehensibility to the Native and Nonnative Ear

ABSTRACT This study explored the error gravity of learners’ mispronunciations involving orthographically nonsalient phonological processes in L2 Korean. A recorded DictoSpeak, similar to a dictogloss, was used to facilitate discussion between learners of Korean and a native-speaking interlocutor. Task content was seeded with exemplars of six phonological processes: aspiration, fortis articulation, palatalization, nasalization, lateralization, and addition of nasal /n/. Native and advanced nonnative Korean speakers used a 9-point scale to assess the comprehensibility of stimuli presented in two conditions (excised, in context). Overall, ratings were higher for nonnative versus native raters. For both rater groups, findings revealed (a) comprehensibility was significantly better for stimuli in context, and (b) a significant Process x Condition interaction. Lateralization had the highest impact on comprehensibility, followed by palatalization, fortis articulation, nasalization, aspiration, and /n/ addition. Based on the results, pronunciation instruction is recommended for at least two of the most impactful processes. Pedagogical suggestions for learners of Korean outside of Korea are also discussed.

Enhancing Pronunciation Skills Through Phonetic Method

This paper aims at stressing current issue on how to enhance pronunciation skills through the phonetic method. The design applied action research in a classroom where there are two cycles conducted after primarily doing pre-cycle. The techniques to collect the data were an oral test, interviews with students and teacher, and field notes. The findings showed that the first cycle did not significantly enhance students’ skills in pronunciation because, among 24 students, 16 students passed the test with the category of a good score and sufficient. Some students were still confused with the pronunciation instruction and failed to test underscore 60. Thus, It needs the second cycle to reach the goal of the research. The second cycle pointed out that 19 students enhanced their pronunciation skills. This research furthermore gives some contribution. First, the students will have the confidence to use English without any affection to be awkward, nervous through having an interaction with each other and make them able to communicate well. Then, in language learning, it provides both practical and theoretical teaching ideas to the prospective teachers to help and to assess their students for enhancing accurate pronunciation.