The Use of Pre‐/Posttest and Self‐Assessment Tools in a French Pronunciation Course

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between students' self‐assessments and experts' assessments in a university French pronunciation course for nonnative speakers using a pre‐/posttest design. Results indicated that students were relatively accurate when making a global assessment (Time 1) and when judging some specific aspects of their French pronunciation (Time 2), although they tended to overestimate the extent to which their abilities were native‐like. Their self‐assessments were most accurate when evaluating linguistic components for which they had learned concrete rules (e.g., liaisons). In addition, data revealed that students became more native‐like in their pronunciation, particularly with regard to nasal and other new vowel sounds, and a content analysis of students' responses to a free‐response self‐analysis query at the end of the course indicated that their awareness of their pronunciation difficulties had increased. Taken together, the study found that self‐assessment may be a valuable pedagogical tool for helping second language learners to acquire more authentic pronunciation.

Impact of self‐reflection and awareness‐raising on novice French learners’ pronunciation

“…The consistency between students’ observations and expert raters’ judgments shows that both high and low progressing students were able to accurately assess their own progress. This contrasts with previous studies on self‐assessment (Lappin‐Fortin & Rye, ). The discrepancy might be attributed to differences in participants (intermediate vs. novice learners) and to the guided and open‐ended nature of the self‐reflection questionnaire used in this study (Lennon, ).…”

“…A growing body of studies has shown that self‐assessment can enhance L2 learning, notably by helping learners develop cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, that is, an awareness of learning as a process (Glover, ; Pawlak, ; Raoofi, Chan, Mukundan, & Rashid, ; Saint‐Léger, ) that can lead to more self‐regulation (Dlaska & Krekeler, ; Ellis & Zimmerman, ; Lappin‐Fortin & Rye, ; Ramírez Verdugo, ; Raoofi et al, ; Saint‐Léger, ; Vitanova & Miller, ). As early as 1989, Lennon established that introspective techniques, such as guided reports via prompts, could lead L2 learners to be more aware of their progress, performance, and state of competence.…”

“…Liakin, Cardoso, and Liakina () found that, although instruction alone and text‐to‐speech‐enhanced instruction both led to significant improvement over time, neither condition provided a significant advantage over the control group. Lappin‐Fortin and Rye () assessed the use of self‐evaluations by intermediate learners who were enrolled in a pronunciation course. Although no significant improvement on liaisons was found, the intervention significantly favored learners who had better initial pronunciation.…”

“…As suggested by Moyer (2017), this study investigated the impact of self-reflection assessment as a complement to explicit pronunciation instruction on the development of intelligible oral production of the contrastive vowels /y/-/u/ (segmental) and of mandatory liaisons (suprasegmental), as well as on learners' phonological awareness, which was examined through the lens of an Awareness Continuum theory, while fully considering learners' language background to determine under which conditions selfreflection was most beneficial in helping them to improve their pronunciation. 2 | LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 | Self-reflection and awareness A growing body of studies has shown that self-assessment can enhance L2 learning, notably by helping learners develop cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, that is, an awareness of learning as a process (Glover, 2011;Pawlak, 2010;Raoofi, Chan, Mukundan, & Rashid, 2014;Saint-Léger, 2009) that can lead to more self-regulation (Dlaska & Krekeler, 2008;Ellis & Zimmerman, 2001;Lappin-Fortin & Rye, 2014;Ramírez Verdugo, 2006;Raoofi et al, 2014;Saint-Léger, 2009;Vitanova & Miller, 2002). As early as 1989, Lennon established that introspective techniques, such as guided reports via prompts, could lead L2 learners to be more aware of their progress, performance, and state of competence.…”

Simulation Dominated Approach versus Video Dominated Approach in Teaching Consecutive Interpreting to Undergraduates: An Exploratory Comparison Study

“…Research has suggested the use of student self-reported ratings as an indirect measure of their learning outcomes. For example, Brown et al (2014) conclude that students' self-assessment of learning outcomes can be high in reliability and offer valuable information on their Hilton et al, 1985;LeBlanc & Painchaud, 1985;Bachman & Palmer, 1989;Hargan, 1994;Ross, 1998;Alderson, 2006;Brantmeier & Vanderplank, 2008;Wolochuk, 2009;Brantmeier et al, 2012;Benton et al, 2013;Préfontaine, 2013;Lappin-Fortin & Rye, 2014) have also found that self-assessment and standardized tests are positively correlated. The correlations between self-assessments and more objective measures are about the same magnitude as those between different subtests in a standardized language test battery (Oscarson, 1997), though self-assessment may be biased against as a proxy for objective standardized measures.…”