Journal of Second Language Pronunciation - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2016

Gender has received scant attention in L2 phonology studies, yet evidence for a female advantage in pronunciation has appeared throughout the past several decades. Neurolinguistic research suggests that females process language differently than males. At the same time, female L2 learners may be more concerned about pronunciation accuracy than their male counterparts. No definitive explanation has yet been offered, however, about why this is so, and how it might impact long-term language acquisition. This paper explores the gender construct in terms of such neurolinguistic predispositions, as well as the L2 evidence for socio-psychological and cognitive differences in orientation to accent, including motivation and strategy use. Suggestions for future research include a closer examination of gender differences in: (a) self-concept; (b) approach to task; (c) access to relevant resources and L2 experience. In this way, gender effects may be more clearly understood as extrinsic or intrinsic in nature.

This article reports on the concerns and issues which 28 experienced and well-qualified teachers expressed during individual semi-structured interviews with the researcher. It describes and discusses the participants’ views, pulling together themes representative of a wide range of perspectives on pronunciation teaching. Themes include: teacher anxiety about pronunciation and pronunciation teaching; external factors affecting pronunciation teaching such as curriculum and exam pressures, textbooks, and training received; approaches to teaching and error correction; activities and techniques; and issues related to literacy bias, listen-and-repeat, use of phonemic symbols and pronunciation goals and models. These findings, taken in conjunction with studies of teacher cognition in other contexts, serve to inform all those with an interest in English language teaching, whether they be researchers, teachers or teacher educators, curriculum designers or textbook writers.

Developing comprehensible speech is an important goal for L2 learners. At present, there is clear evidence indicating that pronunciation instruction can help develop comprehensibility compared to no instruction at all (see Thomson & Derwing, 2015, for a review). However, it is unclear whether rapid improvements can be obtained through explicit pronunciation instruction. This study investigated the effects of explicit and nonexplicit instruction in the development of comprehensible speech in ESL learners. Three groups (n = 12) received about four hours of pronunciation instruction over three weeks using the same teaching sequence. Groups differed in the type of explicit instruction received: two experimental groups received explicit instruction either on suprasegmental features or four vowel sounds. The same content was presented to the third group without explicit instruction. Speech samples collected from all L2 learners before and after treatment revealed an effect of explicit instruction on comprehensibility: the group instructed in suprasegmentals was rated as more comprehensible. No significant improvement was seen in the nonexplicit group. These results suggest that focusing on suprasegmental aspects seems to be most effective for comprehensibility when time is limited, and argue for a major role for explicit phonetic instruction in developing enhanced comprehensibility (e.g., Derwing, Munro, & Wiebe, 1998; Munro, 1995).

Research on communication difficulties between native and nonnative speakers (NNSs) has generally focused on NNSs. However, native speakers’ (NSs) level of familiarity with nonnative accents can also affect communication. This study investigates whether implicit training (exposure to Korean-accented English through sentence transcription) and explicit training (learning about linguistic differences with a focus on Korean-accented English) can improve NSs’ comprehension of Korean-accented English. Participants in both training conditions showed greater improvement than the control group on sentence transcription tasks but not on multiple choice questions that assessed comprehension of a brief lecture. The results replicate past findings showing the effectiveness of implicit training and provide novel evidence of the effectiveness of explicit training. This suggests that explicit training can be effective in improving NSs’ understanding of short utterances when the training ensures participants have learned the material.

This article investigates learners’ perceptions on pronunciation learning in study-abroad contexts from a qualitative perspective. While previous research focused mainly on quantitative measurements of pronunciation gains with mixed results, this study takes a more learner-centered approach and examines the impact of socio-psychological factors on learning foreign pronunciation, which appears to be a highly individual and at times conflict-prone process with which sojourners are confronted. The study draws on the cases of five Canadian students who studied abroad at German universities for one or two semesters. The data collection involved a learning history questionnaire; semi-structured interviews pre-, mid-, and post-sojourn; and bi-weekly e-journals. The data was analyzed and interpreted within the framework of narrative analysis. The results show how sojourners’ beliefs about the importance of pronunciation, community participation, identity-related challenges, and obstacles to pronunciation learning influence and help explain individually different learning behaviors and results.