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Many instructors are reluctant to teach pronunciation in adult ESL classrooms, often because of lack of formal training. However, significant numbers of ESL students want pronunciation instruction. Although stand-alone pronunciation courses for second-language (L2) learners exist, many students cannot gain access to them. One approach to meeting the needs of both instructors and students is for general-skills L2 textbooks to include pronunciation activities. We examined 12 ESL general-skills textbook series (48 texts in total) and six accompanying teachers' manuals to determine to what extent these popular books include pronunciation activities and how consistent the texts are across individual series.We also recorded which aspects of L2 pronunciation are the focus of the lessons. Task types were examined in a subset of five series. We found striking variability in the concentration of pronunciation activities both across and within series. For several years, researchers and practitioners have argued for more attention to pronunciation in second-language (L2) classrooms (Couper, 2006;Isaacs, 2009). There is also evidence that many English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students would like more opportunities to improve their pronunciation (Derwing & Rossiter, 2002; Foote, Holtby, & Derwing, 2011). This is not surprising given that L2 speakers who have a strong mastery of other aspects of Englishlanguage proficiency but who still have pronunciation difficulties may have limited career advancement opportunities and lower earnings (Davila, Bohara, & Saenz, 1993;Pendakur & Pendakur, 1997;Reitz & Sklar, 1997). Similarly, whereas some textbooks used several task types, others relied heavily on a limited range. Furthermore, some texts offered little in terms of explicit explanations. In some instances teachers' manuals provided instructors with guidance; others included little more than repeated admonitions to remind the students to monitor their L2 pronunciation. The implications for teachers of general ESL courses are discussed. Plusieurs enseignants hésitent à enseigner la prononciation aux adultes dans les cours d'ALS, souvent parce qu'ils manquent de formation formelle. Toutefois, un nombre considérable d'apprenants en ALS voudraient qu'on enseigne la prononciation. Même si les cours autonomes de prononciation pour les apprenants d'une langue seconde existent, plusieurs étudiants n'y ont pas accès. Une démarche qui répondrait tant aux besoins des enseignants que ceux des étudiants consisterait à intégrer des activités de prononciation dans les manuels L2 évoquant des compétences générales. Nous avons examiné 12 séries de manuels de compétences générales en ALS (48 volumes en tout) et six manuels pour enseignants dans le but de déterminer dans quelle mesure ces manuels bien répandusAlthough the demand for ESL pronunciation instruction has been partly addressed in that several pronunciation textbooks and teacher resources are currently available (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010;Gilbert, 2004;Grant, 2010;Hewings, 2004;Yates & Z...

We present the outcomes of a pronunciation training program conducted in a workplace setting with second language speakers who had lived in an English‐speaking environment for an average of 19 years. The research questions concerned whether improvement would occur in the learners’ perception of certain segments and prosody; in the comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency of their productions as judged by listeners; and in their speech intelligibility. Despite seemingly stable speech patterns, pre‐ and postintervention tests demonstrated significant improvement in perception and in comprehensibility and intelligibility. However, no difference was noted in fluency, and accent was perceived to be stronger in one posttest. Thus the pronunciation instruction was effective, even in putatively fossilized individuals. This study contributes to research showing the partial independence of accent and other speech dimensions.

Shadowing has been demonstrated to improve various aspects of second language learners’ pronunciation but few studies have investigated whether these changes impact untrained listeners’ perceptions. In the present study, sixteen participants used iPods to practice shadowing short dialogues for eight weeks. The participants practiced at least four times per week for a minimum of 10 minutes each time, and recorded themselves while shadowing. Two tasks (a shadowing task and an extemporaneous speaking task) were administered as pre-, mid-, and post-tests, and were rated by 22 speakers of English. The shadowing task was rated for learners’ ability to imitate a speech model and the extemporaneous speaking task was rated for comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency. Interview data were also collected during the study to gauge participants’ opinions of the activities. Results indicated that the participants improved significantly on all speaking measures apart from accentedness and were largely positive about the activities.