The short and long-term effects of pronunciation instruction

Abstract

There has been surprisingly little exploration of the effectiveness of pronunciation teaching by researchers. This classroom-based study makes an initial step towards addressing this gap by determining the immediate effect of instruction on specific forms in second language (L2) pronunciation and the extent to which gains were retained over time and integrated into phonological competence. The subjects were New Zealand (NZ) immigrants, largely of Asian origin, attending a high-intermediate level English class. The study focused on epenthesis (the addition of an extra sound, usually a schwa, after a consonant) and absence (the inappropriate dropping of a consonant sound). The instruction was explicit and involved a series of short input and practice sessions interspersed amongst the regular teaching over a period of two weeks. Dramatic gains were achieved: the average error rate dropped from 19.9% to 5.5% in the immediate post-test, and rose slightly to 7.5 % in the delayed post-test. A more general test conducted at the same time as the delayed posttest showed the error rate had halved, indicating that these gains had been largely integrated into learners’ phonological competence. By way of comparison, similar groups of students, who did not receive the instruction, achieved no gains in this area of pronunciation during the course of one semester. This suggests that appropriately focused instruction can lead to changes in learners’ phonological interlanguage even where this may appear to have fossilised.