Evidence in Favor of a Broad Framework for Pronunciation Instruction

Abstract

We had native English-speaking (NS) listeners evaluate the effects of 3 types of instruction (segmental accuracy; general speaking habits and prosodic factors; and no specific pronunciation instruction) on the speech of 3 groups of English as a second language (ESL) learners. We

The effects of explicit pronunciation instruction on the degree of perceived foreign accent in the speech of EFL learners

“…While some have shown an effect of pronunciation instruction (Derwing et al, 1998;Kissling, 2013;Sturm, 2013) others have not (Derwing and Rossiter, 2003;Saito, 2011;Derwing et al, 2014). The results of the current study provide support for previous studies showing no effect of segmental pronunciation teaching on the degree of perceived foreign accent.…”

“…Table 1 below presents these differences between previous studies. One noticeable difference is that all the studies that used accent rating, except for Derwing et al (1998), did not find an effect for pronunciation instruction. It is possible that using foreign accent judgement is not an appropriate way of measuring the efficacy of teaching segments, as other factors, such as suprasegmentals and speech rate, which can also have an impact on the overall degree of perceived foreign accent (Munro, 1995), were not controlled for.…”

“…A number of studies have examined whether pronunciation instruction bears any positive effect on the pronunciation of second and foreign language learners (e.g., Champagne-Muzar, Schneiderman and Bourdages, 1993;MacDonald, Yule and Powers, 1994;Derwing, Munro and Wiebe, 1997;Elliott, 1997;Derwing, Munro and Wiebe, 1998;Couper, 2006;Saito, 2011;Saito and Lyster, 2012;Kissling, 2013). Results have shown that pronunciation instruction is generally effective in improving learners' pronunciation (Saito, 2012;Lee, Jang and Plonsky, 2015;Thomson and Derwing, 2015).…”

Holistic perspective on Feedback for adult beginners in an online course of Swedish

“…These suprasegmental and segmental features in interrelationship with each other are important for intelligibility and comprehensibility in Swedish (Banner t 2004;Engstrand 2004;Garlén 1988). Intelligibility and comprehensibility can be improved through formal pronunciation instruction (Derwing et al 1998;Strange 1995). The category of process includes the same subcategories as the classification of feedback on writing.…”

Mobile speech recognition software: A tool for teaching second language pronunciation

“…/y/ pronunciation is reinforced via orthography, input manipulation and repetition among ASR users), the effects of an explicit focus on the target form (Dabaghi, 2010;Dekeyser, 1993), immediate feedback (Rosa and Leow, 2004), multiple opportunities for learning (Christison, 1999;Chun and Plass, 1996), and the game-like approach to teaching afforded by mobile technologies (Bruff, 2009). Lastly, mobile ASR technology ascribes to Chapelle and Jamieson's (2008) suggestions for selecting pronunciation software to develop speaking skills (based on research by Hardison, 2004Hardison, , 2005Derwing, Munro and Wiebe, 1998;MacDonald, Yule and Powers, 1994): learner fit, potential for explicit teaching, opportunities for interactions with the computer, comprehensible feedback, and strategy development to guide students to start learning new L2 features on their own. Evidently, we are aware that the observed gains could also be caused by the effect of the adoption of a new technology, increasing interest and motivation of the students (Clark, 1983;Strambi, 2001;Warschauer, 1996).…”