Pronunciation teaching in the early CLT era

Levis, John M.; Sonsaat, Sinem

doi:10.4324/9781315145006-17

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…In a global community in which nonnative speakers of English outnumber native speakers of English (Jenkins, ), instruction in second language (L2) speaking and pronunciation is critical to our classrooms. Yet the incorporation of classroom‐based pronunciation instruction has fluctuated with the times (Levis, ), from when it was prioritized with the audiolingual approach, to excluded from communicative language teaching (Levis & Sonsaat, ), to the current “golden age” for pronunciation instruction (Derwing, , p. 330). To become communicative in any target language, speaking is considered to be “the fundamental skill” that requires the simultaneous management of thought groups, (filled) pauses, slang, and suprasegmental features (Lazaraton, , p. 106).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of classroom assessment stakes on English language learners’ oral performance

Kermad

Kang

2018

TESOL Journal

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High‐stakes tasks may prevent language learners from performing successfully due to factors of “communicative stress” (Skehan, 1996, p. 52). Little research, however, has directly examined phonological patterns in learners’ performances on low‐stakes, medium‐stakes, and high‐stakes classroom tasks. The current study investigated the oral performance of 37 intensive English program students on a low‐stakes classroom presentation, a medium‐stakes classroom achievement assessment, and a high‐stakes end‐of‐term exit assessment. Suprasegmental measures of rate, fluency, prominence, and pitch were analyzed instrumentally. The researchers conducted mixed factorial analyses of variance and regression analyses to determine the effect of the stakes of the task on speech performance and scores. Findings reveal that students gave prominence to more words, had a decreased mean length of run, and had a narrower pitch range on the high‐stakes exit assessment. Furthermore, frequent phonological features significantly predicted task scores. The researchers discuss implications with regard to how teachers can implement a variety of tasks of different stakes in the classroom to allow opportunities for learners to improve their speech performance inside and outside of the classroom.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of classroom assessment stakes on English language learners’ oral performance

Kermad

Kang

2018

TESOL Journal

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“…A possible reason that the Nativeness Principle remains alive and well in pronunciation teaching is that pronunciation teaching and learning have been neglected since the advent of the communicative era (Levis & Sonsaat, 2017). As a result, pronunciation has often developed separately from other aspects of language teaching, and the Nativeness Principle continues to be an attractive goal for many teachers and learners.…”

Section: Nativeness Intelligibility and Pronunciation Teachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the Intelligibility and Nativeness Principles

Levis

2020

JSLP

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Levis (2005) named two conflicting approaches to pronunciation teaching, the Nativeness Principle and the Intelligibility Principle. This paper revisits those two principles to argue for the superiority of the Intelligibility Principle in regard to where pronunciation fits within the wider field of language teaching, in how it effectively addresses teaching goals, in how it best addresses all contexts of L2 pronunciation learning, and in how it recognizes the reality of social consequences of pronunciation differences. In contrast, the Nativeness Principle, despite its long pedigree and many defenders, falls short by advocating native pronunciation for L2 learners, which is both unlikely to be achieved and unnecessary for effective communication in the L2.

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“…Similarly, teacher cognition studies showed that language teachers lack confidence in teaching L2 pronunciation (Baker, 2011), feel uncertain about how to teach it (Couper, 2017), and as a result, utilize mainly controlled techniques (Baker, 2014). However, it is now evident that L2 pronunciation teaching, which had been identified with the Cinderella imagery in language teaching even before the CLT era (Kelly, 1969), has eventually been invited to the language teaching ball, or at least it does not suffer from “specialists’ underappreciations for the possibility of making better connections between CLT and pronunciation teaching” (Levis & Sonsaat, 2017, p. 13–14).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar to the trajectory of L2 pronunciation teaching, L2 pronunciation research was once considered as the neglected orphan of SLA studies (Deng et al, 2009), a field that suffered from paradigm shifts, growing pains (Munro & Derwing, 2015), and rampant labeling inconsistencies (Munro & Derwing, 2020). However, following the transparent conjuncture out of the nebulous teaching and research context caused by CLT (Levis & Sonsaat, 2017), L2 pronunciation research has enjoyed a resurgence of interest, making it a rapidly growing field (Isaacs & Trofimovich, 2016; Nagle et al, 2019; Pennington, 2021). The growing interest in L2 pronunciation research and teaching, as expected, has lent impetus to review studies and meta-analyses, a sign of the growth of the field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Research on L2 Pronunciation

Demir

Kartal

2022

Stud Second Lang Acquis

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This study reports on a bibliometric mapping analysis of L2 pronunciation research. Analyses on 629 articles published between 1977 and 2020 in 15 prestigious SSCI-indexed applied linguistics journals identified significant research themes and trends, influential authors, documents, and publication sources. The results of the analyses of citation impact, cocitation, and research trends provide valuable insights into understanding the dynamics, evolution patterns, and the intellectual background of L2 pronunciation research, thereby guiding future research and practice.

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Pronunciation teaching in the early CLT era

Cited by 9 publications

References 1 publication

Effect of classroom assessment stakes on English language learners’ oral performance

Effect of classroom assessment stakes on English language learners’ oral performance

Revisiting the Intelligibility and Nativeness Principles

Mapping Research on L2 Pronunciation

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