Despite the value that pronunciation has when learning a language, when it comes to teaching English -and probably other languages- it is one of the skills, according to some studies not my opinion, with less attention.
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Picture 1. Pronunciation: using phonetic symbols. |
Back to the topic of this post, as Jenkin pointed out (as cited in Wong, 2016) "even when learners use a variant grammatical form or an inappropriate expression, they can still be understood. It is usually the wrong pronunciation that leads to communication breakdown" (p. 243). Due to this, being able to speak with good pronunciation is of paramount importance, on the grounds that it allows real communication. Therefore, there are some important questions we must answer in order to teach pronunciation, such as: What is 'teaching pronunciation'? Why is important? How can we use technology to do in distance or virtual learning?
Kelly (2000) stated that we can breakdown the main features of pronunciation as it is shown in the diagram below:
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Picture 2. Features of Pronunciation. (Kelly, 2000). |
If you a learner of English or new teacher seeking to improve your pronunciation, probably this post would not be for you, but do not worry I will write a new one giving some tips I found helpful. (Clic here to go to my post: PRONUNCIATION: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE #1 ).
What is 'teaching pronunciation'?
Basically, teaching pronunciation is to train learners to make improvements on intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness. In case of the last one in this article I will just mentioned, as you probably already know either you are a non-native -like me- or a native teacher, that new approaches of teaching pronunciation claim that make our learner aim to get native accent is unrealistic, because nowadays most learners have more chance to use English as a Lingua Franca (Wong, 2016; Martin, 2020; Bogach et al., 2021). For that reason, whether you use Received Pronunciation (RP) or General American (GA) models, being the former my case, it is sensible that you raise your students' awareness of the astonishing varieties of English, also known as 'World Englishes' (Wong, 2016; Jung, 2010). I am not saying it is wrong to emulate certain accent, but to speak as natives do is a goal that learners must set by themselves (Bogach et al., 2021).
According to Jung (2010) there is a tremendous influence of our mother tongue, or L1, on the way how we speak a new language, that is precisely why intelligibility (focusing on words) and comprehensibility (focusing on meaning) are crucial. While the lack of intelligibility could lead learners to misunderstandings with the meaning of some words (e.g., 'beach' and 'bitch'), to have a pronunciation with little use of comprehensibility features could make our message be "more likely to affect a native speaking hearer’s judgement of the attitude of the speaker rather than causing misunderstanding over the content of the message. For example, (...) using low pitch displacement for requests, are likely to be interpreted as rude by native speakers" (Bogach et al., 2021, p. 2; Kelly, 2000).
If we based on what Kelly pointed out, teaching phonemic awareness will contribute to improve intelligibility, while teaching suprasegmental or prosodic features will enhance comprehensibility.
Why is it important?
Although this question was partially answered in previous paragraphs, there are some other reasons we have to consider.
Some learners could have good commands of lexis and grammar, but it may not be enough if there are some pronunciation issues (e.g., ordering ´soap´ as a starter in a restaurant) (Kelly, 2000). Moreover, if learners are not aware of mispronunciation, how could learners take the initiative to self-correct when it is necessary? (e.g., 'sheet' instead of 'shit'). As Schmidt (1990) stated "errors are the result of not knowing the rules of the target language, forgetting them, or not paying attention" (p. 129), [which differs from what Krashen once claimed that] most of the language learning is unconscious" (ibid).
Additionally, teaching pronunciation must include training learners to be able to understand World Englishes. Learners need to receive quality input imparted by teachers on how to use phonemes and suprasegmental features, because this will allow them to "consciously control their speech production" (Wong, 2016, p. 244) and after sufficient speaking practice learners will be able produce short utterances "less controlled [using rightly pronunciation features] and more automatic" (Wong, 2016, p. 244; Fouz, 2019).
Finally, but no less important lots of learners are interest, including me when I was in that position, in speaking as well as a native speaker or at least to copy their accent. For that reason, teaching phonemic assimilation is also a relevant feature to give high quality input in order to achieve that goal.
Now that we have checked the significance of teaching pronunciation and include it on our own teaching practice, let us move on to the next question.
How can we teach pronunciation in distance or virtual learning?
First, to answer this question I would like to indicate that here you will find some advice about how to use technology to increase the time that your learners receive explicit instruction on pronunciation. Why? Simply because there are some techniques that we use on a regular F2F (Face-to-Face) lesson which cannot be applied when using video conference tools. For instance, have you ever tried choral drilling using Zoom or Google meet? or Are your demotivated adolescent pupils, who are dealing with insecurities about how the look or sound like, willing to do either choral or individual drilling? Obviously, the recommendations you will see here, at least some of them with a slightly variation, can also be used in F2F context.
Second, to be able to teach pronunciation correctly, teachers have to be knowledgeable enough of how phonemes (or articulation) and suprasegmental features work. The lack of formal teacher training in phonetics, is sometimes the underlying reason why teaching pronunciation does not receive the attention it deserves. For that reason, I suggest learning by heart the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) system right now, if you have not yet, because if you are reading this article, the most probably thing is that you already received some instruction on how to use them, because this a common feature of a first degree or even a CertHE (Certificate of Higher Education) in ELT. Anyway if you do not feel confident enough I am preparing a new post in which you can learn them. (When the post will be ready clic here)
Second, adopting a perceptual approach could improve pronunciation, thanks to sensory interaction and how learners use different senses to respond to the stimuli given. For that reason the more senses learners use, the better they learn(if you want to see how to teach with some other multisensorial ideas check my post). With respect to this Gomez & Gallardo (2014) shed light on the route senses, namely, "an auditory route, by which learners can decode the acoustic properties of the signal linguistically so as to access meaning; a visual route, by which learners can interpret visual information (e.g., gestures, phonetic symbols, diagrams of oral cavity); and finally, an oral route, by which learners overtly practise pronunciation skills" (p. 502). Nonetheless, if we really want that this approach works, we have to provide learners with input from different English speakers (Martin, 2020).
Third, as teacher, not only do you have the responsibility to raise pupil's phonemic and prosodic awareness, but also to foster the importance of self-monitoring. According to Ausubel "adults could benefit from certain grammatical explanations and deductive thinking about (...) learning a second and foreign language" (Jung, 2010, p. 156). In order to train self-monitoring it is essential to give corrective feedback (you can also visit my blog of how to give effective feedback in Virtual Learning Environments to know more about the different types of feedback) using techniques such as: explicit correction, recast and elicitation. Likewise, Tomé (2019) highlight the students self-monitoring imply learners using the following self-correction techniques: "repetition, incorporation, self-repair, peer-repair" (p. 88).
Now it is time for the more important aspect, probably the main reason why you decide to read this post: Suggestions to teach pronunciation that can be applied either in F2F or in virtual lessons.
1. Using CAPT - Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training (all the levels with strong technological skills)
Lots of studies, talk about the benefits of using CAPT (Bogach, et al., 2021; Aleksandrovna & Genrikhovna, 2021; Martin, 2020; Gómez & Gallardo, 2014). But there are some implications we have to analyse. Firstly, the availability, not all of our institutions will be willing to invest in a software like this in spite of its benefits. Secondly, the complexity, although I deem myself as techy I found really difficult to use this technology, well the two free available I found, and the situation is even worse since I sometimes teach primary learners, but if you have the required technological skills I invite you check how they work (http://www.praat.org/; https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/sfs/). Thirdly, it is useful for autonomous learners with high technological skills, yet if you teach secondary or primary it is advisable to fully analyse if this is the best option for you.
2 PODCAST projects (B2 and higher levels)
This is an interesting idea to exposed learners with authentic materials, and also to give them the chance to practice pronunciation while they save a e-portfolio of their work. However, this will be fantastic for learners at B2 and higher. Although the CEFR for B1 points out the intelligibility must be an important characteristic of learners at that level, (Fouz, 2019) the participants should be extremely motivated learners seeking to achieve higher levels of proficiency.
3 Visual input: video recordings (All levels and all ages)
Just recently I saw a teacher posting photos of her face and mouth and, used them to teach her pupils phonemic awareness. But what about if you record a video yourself instead? So, your students will be able to watch all the movements that you make with your mouth and your tongue positions. Besides, there are some other motives why this could be advantageous: 1) Provide learners with visual and oral input; 2) Teach phonemic awareness in context (phonemic assimilation, connected speech), please never teach pronunciation isolated; 3) Students can practice at their own pace, playing and pausing the video whenever they need. This could be complemented with pictures of the oral cavity that we tend to use to teach tongue positions, above all, the position that could be hard to see by just showing an audio. I found that Screencastify could be the tool you can use here to teach phonemic and suprasegmental features awareness thanks to the annotation tools, the possibility of embedding the camera and how easy is to share your final product, because once the video is recorded and edited is automatically store on Google Drive or ready to be published on YouTube.
4 e-Portfolios of recordings
Output is an important characteristic of the perceptual approach. Remember, learning takes place once the learner can produce something going from control to freer activities. If you´ve already read my other posts, you will see that I am a big fan of Vocaroo for the following reasons: 1) Really easy to use; 2) It is for free; 3) Capacity of recording really long audios. Hence, after learners watch the video in which you teach them how to pronounce, why don't you invite them to do some control activities and semi-control activities? Despite the fact that after doing this activity it is compulsory to check each recording, which could become a burden, bear in mind that you do not have to do this activity every single lesson, even the books are from CUP (Cambridge) and OUP (Oxford), where you can find explicit pronunciation lessons, they appear from time to time.
5 Provide students with a lot of input
Generally, when using a textbook, the audio component comes with lots of practice and several different accents and English speakers around world. Moreover, when teaching English for International exams the material available has speakers from different parts of the world. But if you want to give more input to help learners to be aware of some common pronunciations I found this website Accents of English from Around the World from the University of Edinburgh (http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/research/gsound/Eng/Database/Phonetics/Englishes/Home/HomeMainFrameHolder.htm) which offers a wide variety of possible pronunciations of hundreds of words. Additionally, if you do not have access to more materials is helpful that you and other teachers (B2 or higher level) record your own.
Conclusion
To sum up, pronunciation is an important aspect of learning a language, which from our learners' perspective could be deemed as the most important. As teacher is our responsibility to master features of pronunciation (phonemes and suprasegmental) so our learners' speaking will be intelligible and comprehensible. In addition, to teach pronunciation we can make use of different senses route (auditory, visual, and oral) and foster self-monitoring, giving corrective feedback by using different techniques. Finally, technology offers a wide range of tools that we can adapt in our teaching practice as it is necessary.
References:
Wong, C. S. (2016). Teaching Pronunciation to Learners of English as a Lingua Franca. En W. Renandya & H. Puji (Eds.), English Language Teaching Today. Linking Theory and Practice (p. 241-255). Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-38834-2_17
Martin, I. A. (2020). Pronunciation development and instruction in distance language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 24(1), 86–106. https://doi.org/10125/44711
Bogach, N.; Boitsova, E.; Chernonog, S.; Lamtev, A.; Lesnichaya, M.; Lezhenin, I.; Novopashenny, A.; Svechnikov, R.; Tsikach, D.; Vasiliev, K.; Pyshkin, E,. & Blake, J. (2021). Speech Processing for Language Learning: A Practical Approach to Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Teaching. Electronics, 10(235), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10030235
Jung, M-Y. (2010). The Intelligibility and Comprehensibility of World Englishes to Non-Native Speakers. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 14(2), 141-163. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ920536.pdf
Kelly, G. (2000). how to Teach Pronunciation. Longman.
Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The Role of Conciousness in Second Language Learning. Applied Linguistics 11(2), 129-158. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.2.129
Fouz, J. (2019). Podcast-based pronunciation training: Enhancing FL learners’ perception andproduction of fossilised segmental features. ReCALL, 31(2): 150–169. DOI:10.1017/S0958344018000174
Gómez, E. & Gallardo, F. (2014). Two Phonetic-Training Procedures for Young Learners: InvestigatingInstructional Effects on Perceptual Awareness. The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes,70(4), 500–531. DOI:10.3138/cmlr.2324
Tomé, M. (2020). Técnicas de corrección de la pronunciación en Internet para el aprendizaje del Francés lengua extranjera. Thélème. Revista Complutense De Estudios Franceses, 35(1), 85-94. https://doi.org/10.5209/thel.66284
Aleksandrovna, T. & Genrikhovna, E. (2021). Developing L2 prosodic competence online: Implications of the emergency remote teaching. XLinguae. European Scientific Language Journa, 14(1), 38-48. DOI: 10.18355/XL.2021.14.01.03
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