L2 instruction has tended to move away in recent years from the unrealistic expectation that learners can quickly develop native-like accents. Yet we know that effective communication relies on intelligibility and comprehensibility (Munro & Derwing, 1995), and that our pedagogy must therefore include pronunciation training.
This is especially true in distance and remote learning settings, where contact with the instructor may be limited. Martin's research found, however, that targeted, explicit training in pronunciation can make a significant difference:
“Learners who received targeted pronunciation training improved significantly from pre- to posttest and significantly outperformed learners in the control group … These findings suggests that distance language instruction can benefit from including targeted pronunciation training.”
Martin, p. 86
Yet there are multiple challenges to doing so:
- Sound quality can be adversely affected by technical factors (poor microphones, weak WiFi connections) and distracting background noises — for students and instructors alike.
- One-on-one feedback in a Zoom Main Session, where everyone can hear everything, is potentially awkward for everyone involved.
- Having the entire class mimic the instructor’s L2 pronunciation in unison — a technique adopted by many instructors — rarely works in Zoom (as anyone trying to sing “Happy Birthday” as a group via Zoom has quickly found out).
Yet Martin’s research confirms that explicit training in distinguishing L1 from L2 sounds and targeted attention to native-like vs. nonnative-like accents can have a profound effect on students’ developing pronunciation skills. How can instructors bring these benefits into a remote classroom?
- Make use of the relative privacy in Breakout Rooms for targeted pronunciation training.
- Have students in Breakout sessions practice reading sentences to each other that contain L2 sounds known to cause problems for learners, and encourage students to collaborate with partners on getting the sounds right.
- Create two sets of sentences containing words with difficult sounds; label them “A” and “B” and send them to students via Chat or email, with instructions to open one or the other file and dictate the sentences to each other in Breakout sessions. One partner writes down verbatim what the other partner says — and then reads it back to the partner, who reciprocates with the same procedure.
- In a Main Session, dictate 4-5 sentences containing words with difficult sounds to the whole group, and have students write down exactly what you say. Then send them in pairs to a Breakout session, and have them read the sentences back to each other, checking to see if both students wrote the same thing.
- Create a Word file with a short list of words containing “problem” sounds. (For English L2 the list might include “can / cane” or “come / comb”). Send the list to students via Chat or email, have them open it, and then read one word from each pair while students listen to you and mark or highlight the word they think you are saying. Have them say it back to you, or compare their choices with each other.
- In a Breakout session, have students read or act out dialogues in your textbook or curriculuml, or a text you created yourself, paying attention to sentence-level prosody as well as individual morphemes.
- Encourage students to listen to new vocabulary words while they’re looking at them — either by finding an online dictionary with a audio feature, or using a similar feature in your curriculum — and then saying the word out loud themselves while looking at it. (Research shows that looking at a word, hearing it spoken, and then saying it out loud increases the likelihood of learning to pronounce it correctly.)
- Fang Yan (CHI) suggests having students make audio recordings of themselves and post them privately to you via Canvas, which you can then comment on (via an audio/video file or a written response).
References & Resources
Derwing, T. and Munro, J. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 379-397.
Munro, J. and Derwing, T. (1995). Foreign accent, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 45(1), 285-310.
Martin, I. (2020). Pronunciation development and instruction in distance language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 24(1), 86–106.
Thomson, R. (2011). Computer assisted pronunciation training: Targeting second language vowel perception improves pronunciation. CALICO Journal 28(3), 744-765.