Teaching classic put to the test: Do tongue twisters work for L2 pronunciation?

Tongue twisters are a controversial pronunciation teaching classic. Whereas some see tongue twisters difficult and frustrating for learners, others find them fun and motivating. This study was inspired by these opposing views and the fact that previous studies have failed to offer convincing proof of whether this technique works for L2 pronunciation learning. This study approaches the question with a teaching experiment. Participants were 28 learners of L2 Swedish. Half of them trained with tongue twisters and half with authentic sentences. Training focussed on two sounds typically difficult for the learners, who were tested before and after the training period. Further, the participants we…

Intelligibility and the gravity of segmental deviations in L1 Finnish speakers’ L2 English

The goal of English pronunciation teaching has shifted from native-likeness to intelligibility. Especially in EFL contexts, pushing learners to sound like L1 speakers is difficult to justify, whereas becoming intelligible is an easily justifiable, practical learning goal. However, EFL teachers often emphasize the sounds that are typically challenging for their learners, even though all sounds are not equally important for intelligibility. The present study is focussed on the extent to which segmental deviations can compromise intelligibility. Speech samples were elicited from teenaged L1 Finnish learners of English, demonstrating segmental deviations typical of the target group. To evaluate…

Ymmärrettävyystutkimuksen antia kielenopetukselle : esimerkkinä englanti vieraana kielenä

Nykyaikaisessa vieraiden kielten opetuksessa on tavoitteena helposti ymmärrettävä puhe. Tämä tavoite on kielenopetukselle yhteinen päämäärä oppijoiden iästä tai taitotasosta riippumatta, ja se kulkee täten oppijoiden mukana halki elinikäisen kielenoppimisen. Tässä artikkelissa esitellään soveltavan kielentutkimuksen piirissä virinnyttä ymmärrettävyystutkimusta, joka helpottaa keskittämään kielenopetusta ymmärrettävyyden kannalta olennaisimpiin asioihin. Samalla tiivistetään suomen- ja ruotsinkielisten suomalaisten puhuman englannin ymmärrettävyyttä selvittäneen ICASEF-hankkeen päätulokset. Hankkeen tulosten ja aiemman tutkimustiedon perusteella tunnistetut englannin ymmärrettävyyteen yhdist…

Kazoo training for L2 pronunciation practice and reduced foreign accentedness?

This paper presents a controlled pretest–training–posttest study on using a small membraphone instrument called kazoo for L2 pronunciation practice and reducing foreign accentedness. Learners were recorded for free speech before and after a six-week pronunciation and oral skills course including L2 prosody training with personal kazoos. A control group did not receive any kazoo training but did similar tasks in regular speech. Samples of all learners’ free speech before and after the course were rated for foreign accentedness by L1 speakers. In addition, learners taking part in the kazoo group were interviewed in focus groups to ascertain their views on kazoo training. The results imply tha…

The English Pronunciation Teaching in Europe Survey : Factors Inside and Outside the Classroom

In the past two decades, a number of studies have looked at how English pronunciation is taught, focusing on teaching practices, materials, training and attitudes to native speaker models from both the teachers’ and the learners’ perspective. Most of these studies have been conducted in English-speaking countries such as the USA (Murphy, 1997), Great Britain (Bradford and Kenworthy, 1991; Burgess and Spencer, 2000), Canada (Breitkreutz, Derwing and Rossiter, 2001; Foote, Holtby and Derwing, 2011), Ireland (Murphy, 2011) and Australia (Couper, 2011; Macdonald, 2002). In Europe, pronunciation teaching has been studied in Spain (Walker, 1999) and, more recently, in Finland (Tergujeff, 2012, 20…

Hill or hell : identification of English vowels by Finnish schoolchildren knowing no English

English pronunciation teaching in Finland

Svenskspråkiga läser isländska : en undersökning om lexikaliska likheter i svenska och isländska

Good Servants but Poor Masters: On the Important Role of Textbooks in Teaching English Pronunciation

Textbooks are the most commonly used teaching materials among European EFL teachers (Henderson et al., 2012), and it is undeniable that they have a central role in foreign language teaching overall. Scholars across time have claimed that the role of textbooks cannot be overestimated: textbooks determine a major part of classroom teaching (see Sobkowiak, 2012). This paper discusses the influence of textbooks in English pronunciation teaching in an EFL environment. It presents a study in which the occurrence of four typical pronunciation teaching task types and four pronunciation teaching topics were analysed in three data sources: textbooks, classroom observations, and learner interviews. Th…

Wanted: tutkimusperustainen ääntämisen opetus

Arvio teoksesta Tracey M. Derwing ja Murray J. Munro 2015. Pronunciation Fundamentals. Evidence-based Perspectives for L2 Teaching and Research. Language Learning & Language Teaching 42. John Benjamins Publishing Company. nonPeerReviewed

The English pronunciation teaching in Europe survey: selected results

This paper provides an overview of the main findings from a European-wide on-line survey of English pronunciation teaching practices. Both quantitative and qualitative data from seven countries (Finland, France, Germany, Macedonia, Poland, Spain and Switzerland) are presented, focusing on teachers' comments about:
 ● their own pronunciation,
 ● their training,
 ● their learners’ goals, skills, motivation and aspirations,
 ● their preferences for certain varieties (and their perception of their students' preferences).
 The results of EPTiES reveal interesting phenomena across Europe, despite shortcomings in terms of construction and distribution. For example, most re…

På väg mot bättre språkundervisning - FOKUS på uttal

Nykytrendi kommunikatiivisuuden painottamiseen kieltenopetuksessa tuntuu tapahtuneen ääntämisen kustannuksella. Koska monet opettajat kokevat ääntämisen opettamisen liian haastavaksi, se jää usein taka-alalle tai kokonaan opettamatta kielten oppitunneilla. Hyvä ääntäminen on kuitenkin tärkeä osa suullista kielitaitoa. Se helpottaa sekä ymmärretyksi tulemista että muiden ymmärtämistä suullisessa vuorovaikutuksessa. Luottamus omaan suulliseen kielitaitoon myös lisää kielenoppijan rohkeutta käyttää kieltä. Sitä paitsi monet oppilaat haluavat oppia ääntämään. Mihin suuntaan kieltenopetusta pitäisi ryhtyä kehittämään ääntämisen osalta, jotta oppilaat osaisivat ja uskaltaisivat käyttää opiskelemi…

Learner Perspective on English Pronunciation Teaching in an EFL Context

This paper reports on an interview study with EFL learners that aimed to explore learners’ perceptions and views on English pronunciation teaching. The participants of the present study were ten EFL learners studying in the public educational system of Finland. Six of the participants were pupils attending basic education class nine, i.e. 15- to 16-year-old lower secondary level pupils. Two were primary level pupils attending basic education class four (aged 10), and two were upper secondary school pupils (aged 18). The interviews were thematic, and the learners were encouraged to speak freely about the English pronunciation teaching they were receiving and their opinions on this. In additi…

Second Language Prosody and its Development : Connection between Different Aspects

This study focuses on the development of L2 prosody and, in particular, whether different aspects can affect each other. Finnish-speaking learners of Swedish took part in a pronunciation and oral skills course and were recorded for various speaking tasks before and after the experimental intervention. Read-aloud declarative sentences (statements) from nine learners were acoustically analysed for several tonal and temporal aspects, focusing on the marking of primary stress. The results reveal that the learning of Swedish tonal word accent 2 (H*LH) facilitates other tonal developments towards native-like utterance intonation. A link between tonal and temporal developments in the marking of pr…

English Pronunciation Teaching: Four Case Studies from Finland

The present study looks at how English pronunciation teaching practices are like in Finnish schools from the primary to upper secondary level; in particular, which methods are used and which items are emphasised. The study was carried out as focussed observations (Hopkins 2008, p. 89), as classroom observations were considered the best way to achieve the aim of this study. Four EFL teachers were each observed for 6–9 lessons within a period of one week. A pre-prepared observation form was used as a tool, and then developed into a categorisation of the teaching methods used by the observed teachers. As for the results, the teachers offered pronunciation teaching very different from each othe…

Förståelighetsperspektiv på finlandssvenskars vanliga uttalsdrag i engelska

The present investigation addresses the gravity of mispronunciation for the intelligibility of English spoken by L1 Finland-Swedish teenagers. Previous research on the topic has been scarce, and even though there is some knowledge about the typical pronunciation challenges faced by this learner group, there is hardly any empirical research on the extent to which the typical mispronunciations actually cause misunderstandings. To investigate this, speech samples were elicited from teenaged L1 Finland-Swedish learners of English, demonstrating typical mispronunciations. Then, an intelligibility test was arranged with L1 English listeners (n = 48) matching the speakers’ age. Results suggest tha…

Second language comprehensibility and accentedness across oral proficiency levels : A comparison of two L1s

Second language comprehensibility and accentedness are highly complex phenomena, and numerous studies have been conducted to better understand these constructs. However, research has seldom addressed L2 comprehensibility and accentedness in relation to speakers' proficiency in the target language. This study explores L2 English comprehensibility and accentedness across three proficiency levels. The speakers were 60 teenaged Finns, half of them speaking Finnish as their L1 and half speaking Finland-Swedish as their L1. Using 20-s speech samples, the comprehensibility and accentedness of the speakers were rated by 34 English-speaking teenagers on a 9-point scale. Comparisons were made regardi…

L1 listeners’ perception of L2 pronunciation: effect of prosody on accentedness ratings in Swedish


 
 
 This paper reports on a study in which L1 speakers (n = 53) of Swedish rated the accentedness of read-aloud sentences produced by L2 speakers (n = 6) of Swedish. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of certain prosodic features on the accentedness ratings. These features include Swedish tone accents and and deviant speech rhythm (e.g. lack of primary stress, and realization of multiple stresses). The results reveal that utterances with deviant speech rhythm yielded perceptions of stronger foreign accent than utterances with target-like rhythm. As for the tone accents, their effect on the scores were non-existent or only marginal. As missing tone accents ha…

The English Pronunciation Teaching in Europe Survey: Finland

This paper reports on the findings of the English Pronunciation Teaching in Europe Survey (EPTiES), concentrating on responses from EFL teachers working in Finland (n=103). The survey was designed to gain research-based information about the state of English pronunciation teaching in European teaching contexts, and it included questions related to teacher training, teaching materials and methods, assessment of pronunciation, status of pronunciation teaching, and pronunciation model, among other things. These issues are now addressed based on the data provided by the Finnish respondents. peerReviewed