The longitudinal impact of self-reflection and integrated pronunciation instruction on L2 French learners’ production of /y/ and /u/

Abstract

Although pronunciation can be fostered through explicit instruction, instructors need practical strategies to support their learners’ pronunciation (Darcy, 2018; Derwing, 2018; Derwing & Munro, 2015; Levis, 2018). Additionally, “researching longitudinal development of L2 learners [pronunciation] is essential to understanding influences in their success” (Derwing & Munro, 2013, p.163). This three-semester-long experimental quantitative study on 72 French learners examined whether self-reflection (open-ended questionnaires) as a learning strategy could complement integrated explicit pronunciation instruction and support the development of intelligible production of the two contrastive vowels /y/ and /u/. Results on pre/post read-aloud tests surrounding pronunciation lessons were compared between a treatment (instruction + self-reflection), a comparison (instruction only) and a control group (neither instruction, nor self-reflection), and within each group to determine if there was significant growth over time. Findings revealed that self-reflection combined with explicit instruction led to better learning outcomes and production gains when compared to oral natural input.

Integrating online pronunciation instruction: The case of learners of French

“…Past research has shown that pronunciation instruction has a significant impact on learners' pronunciation improvement (Derwing, 2018; Lee et al, 2015; Levis & Wu, 2018; Martin, 2020a, 2020b; Meritan, 2020; Meritan & Mroz, 2019; Saito & Plonsky, 2019). Many studies have been conducted on learners in an ESL context (e.g., Darcy, 2018; Venkatagiri & Levis, 2007) and on learners in a naturalistic or immersion settings (e.g., Bergeron & Trofimovich, 2017; Kennedy et al, 2014), with learners benefiting from pronunciation instruction.…”

“…Several studies have also investigated pronunciation gains of intermediate to advanced French learners in phonetics or pronunciation courses (e.g., Inceoglu, 2019, 2021; Lappin‐Fortin & Rye, 2014; Sturm, 2013a, 2013b; Violin‐Wigent, 2014). However, very few studies have investigated integrated explicit pronunciation instruction (or lack thereof) at the beginner and/or intermediate level in French classrooms (Meritan, 2020; Miller, 2012; Sturm, 2019, 2021). Miller (2012) explored the effectiveness of two different pronunciation teaching approaches on beginner French learners.…”

“…However, no pretest was done and thus no comparison from pre‐ to posttests was possible. Meritan (2020) investigated the impact of integrated pronunciation instruction combined with self‐reflection on beginner and intermediate learners. In their study, the author tracked and compared beginner learners receiving pronunciation instruction following a spelling‐to‐sound approach (Comparison), learners participating in self‐reflective activities in addition to the spelling‐to‐sound pronunciation instruction (Treatment), and learners receiving neither pronunciation instruction nor self‐reflective activities (Control).…”

“…Several studies have found solutions to address these issues in ESL, German, and Spanish (e.g., Darcy, 2018; Martin, 2020a, 2020b; Mohammadi & Lord, 2021)—mainly through integrated pronunciation instruction (within communicative daily lessons, Darcy, 2018), or using Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (Martin, 2020a, 2020b; Mohammadi & Lord, 2021). Only three studies have addressed French pronunciation learning via explicit pronunciation instruction and a spelling‐to‐sound approach (i.e., words well known to the students are used to model target sounds) (Meritan, 2020; Meritan & Mroz, 2019; Miller, 2012; Sturm, 2021).…”

Effects of benchmarking and peer‐assessment on French learners' self‐assessments of accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency

“…However, training in self‐reflection and self‐assessment appears to lead to more convergence between learners' self‐assessments and teachers' evaluations (Babaii et al, 2016; Chen, 2008; see also Meritan & Mroz, 2019). Similarly, repeated self‐assessment seems to impact learners' language performance positively, such that those who self‐assess their speech over time improve in various dimensions of speech, including fluency, pronunciation, and connected speech processes (de Saint Léger 2009; Kissling and O'Donnell 2015), likely through increased awareness of these dimensions (for empirical work linking L2 learners' pronunciation development to measures of self‐reflection and awareness, see Meritan, 2020; Meritan & Mroz, 2019; Sturm, 2013, 2019).…”