Revisiting Pronunciation Instruction

By Dan Nickolai, Saint Louis University

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.69732/CUJK8690

My Pronunciation Path

In the months preceding my year abroad in France, I remember being especially motivated to sound French. I dreaded the thought of my perceptibly-anglophone accent being subject to derision or ridicule by native speakers. I was so troubled with the matter that I implored a professor of mine to offer a weekly independent study on pronunciation. While she graciously accepted, it was never lost on me why I was asking in the first place, nor that I was unique in the program in getting this very special attention. Although I had studied French for nearly a decade, no class of mine had ever seriously incorporated pronunciation instruction into the curriculum. I remember studying the subjunctive and stem-changing verbs until my eyes bled, but never did an instructor dwell on the mystifying vowels of French or those magnificent uvular [ʁ] sounds I dreamt of producing with ease. Like many learners of second languages, pronunciation was inherently important to me, but making progress would require a serious departure from the classroom.

The Fall and Rise of Pronunciation Instruction

As it turns out, my lack of formal pronunciation instruction was not some isolated anomaly. As language pedagogy evolved from audio-lingual approaches to more communicative ones, the emphasis on pronunciation in the classroom was largely lost (Derwing & Munro, 2005). With regards to scholarly attention to pronunciation, Levis (2022) has documented a forty-year period of professional neglect, with research only increasing in the past decade or so. Countless learners have completed entire degrees in world languages where pronunciation was only implicitly taught. Many of these same learners became language teachers themselves, with no formal foundation for teaching pronunciation to their students. This became a generational cycle, and without intervention, the scope of the matter has been global. Levis and LeVelle (2010) have observed that “the marginalization of pronunciation in the language curriculum is very much a worldwide phenomenon.” Fortunately, the tides have been turning, and advances in technology have played no small role in the recent renaissance of pronunciation instruction.

Why Pronunciation Matters

Before turning to the technology, let’s consider for a moment why pronunciation matters. One might sensibly argue that I was overly concerned with sounding French. With decades of professional hindsight, I am reluctantly sympathetic to that view. However, the outsized role that pronunciation plays in everyday communication acts is often underappreciated. Pronunciation, more so than grammar or vocabulary, is what an interlocutor first notices in someone’s speech. For good or for bad, our speech conveys torrents of information about ourselves. This, in turn, can influence the interactions we have with others in the language we are speaking. There are real sociopragmatic consequences for non-native-like speech beyond simply being misunderstood (Veláquez-López & Lord, 2021). Moyer (2004) sees pronunciation as “psychologically loaded” and “inherently associated with identity”. It should also be clear that when pronunciation sufficiently deviates from expectations, a total breakdown of communication can occur. We have all probably experienced this scenario, both in our second language, and when less proficient speakers address us in our first language. We know that pronunciation matters, not just for successful communication, but also for representing who we are, and in some cases, who we hope to be.

Challenges to Teaching Pronunciation

A few significant hurdles to pronunciation instruction have been well documented in L2 research. As noted earlier, one common challenge is that teachers do not feel adequately prepared to teach it (Levis & McCrocklin, 2018). Even highly proficient or native speakers may have no formal training or professional comfort in this area. This was, incidentally, the case with my own French professor, who acknowledged scouring for pronunciation resources and exercises in between our weekly meetings. A second challenge is the perceived opportunity cost of using class time for non-communicative language instruction. Choral repetition, vowel charts, and dwelling on minimal pairs may appear to some as incompatible with modern language teaching (García et al., 2020). Yet another challenge is the pervasive myth that pronunciation cannot be taught, or that pronunciation will somehow “take care of itself” given enough time and exposure (Levis, 2022). This final view has been undermined by the last decade of research, including a meta-analysis of 86 pronunciation studies showing that learners at all levels can benefit from targeted pronunciation instruction (Lee et al., 2015).

Computer-assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT)

The strategic integration of technology can begin to address the thorny challenges outlined above. Computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) presents an opportunity to create automated pronunciation exercises, safeguarding classroom time for communicative language teaching, and to provide objective and immediate feedback to learners. CAPT tools are perhaps especially helpful when leveraged outside the constraints of the typical language classroom. When assigned as homework, learners benefit from a low-stress, peer-free environment, and are empowered to see their incremental progress as they work through assignments. Instructors are also better positioned to discern which learners are actually improving. The familiar cacophony of twenty voices mimicking their instructor turns out to be a poor instrument for discerning who needs further instruction. This matter is further compounded by the heterogeneity of pronunciation skills across learners in the same course; not every student needs the same corrective feedback or faces the same pronunciation challenges. As I reflect back on my independent study, I see that the number one benefit was the 1:1 attention I received from my instructor. The class was tailored specifically for me, my weakest areas, and there was no getting lost in the crowd. To that end, CAPT tools can likewise help deliver individualized feedback and ensure that all students fully engage in pronunciation activities.

The Current State of CAPT

I have spent the last ten years working on a free CAPT tool, iSpraak, that empowers students to practice speaking and seeks to liberate language instructors from the aforementioned tedium and challenges of pronunciation instruction and evaluation. Since I began these efforts, there has been a veritable explosion of sophisticated CAPT integrations into commercial and educational language learning resources. As these tools have become more prevalent, so has the body of research that examines the efficacy, benefits, and limitations of CAPT. I recently co-authored a systematic review of 50 empirical studies that concludes these tools are deserving of our collective professional attention and adoption. Many modern CAPT tools are battle-tested, and have proven to be effective, objective, and are usually associated with a positive student experience (Nickolai et al., 2024). From one perspective, the current state of CAPT is so remarkable that it might be tempting to forego all other forms of pronunciation instruction. While I am optimistic of the trajectory and potential of these tools, I do not fully embrace this stance. Speech recognition engines are probabilistic by design, and this creates conditions for false positives to emerge in unwelcome ways for pronunciation practice (Cámara-Arenas, 2023). A deeper, more careful analysis of the above research indicates that CAPT tools work best in tandem with instructor-led pronunciation instruction (García et al., 2020; Inceoglu et al., 2023; Liakin, Cardoso, & Liakina, 2015; Mroz, 2023).

Proceeding with Pronunciation Instruction

The truth is that pronunciation plays a vital role in communication acts and should not remain an instructional afterthought in our language classrooms. Furthermore, pronunciation is something inherently valued by language learners. While not every student will come impertinently knocking down our doors demanding a weekly corrective phonetics course, we would be wise to forgive those that do. Pronunciation matters. We are fortunate to teach in an era that is exploding with tools that can take on the heavy lifting of tailoring pronunciation instruction and feedback. As our profession encounters and adopts new CAPT tools, we will become sensitive to the specific shortfalls and limitations of a given platform. Where technology falls short, we should stand tall. For some of us, this may require leaving our communicative comfort zone (something I will remind you that we routinely ask our learners to do), and for others this will require seizing opportunities for our own professional development.

Regrettably, most teacher training programs have not empowered instructors to feel comfortable teaching L2 pronunciation (Levis & Kochem, 2023). Back when my French professor was hunting for instructional resources, she found only the slimmest of pickings (and there were certainly no usable CAPT tools at the time). Now, however, there is a multitude of books and resources available for instructors seeking to truly integrate pronunciation instruction into their curriculum. We can see that more professional attention and visibility is given to the field with each passing year (Levis, 2022). Conferences devoted to pronunciation have emerged (PSSLT), and so have new journals (JSLP) that explore, among other pronunciation topics, the integration of emergent CAPT platforms. In another telltale development, the new 2024 ACTFL Guidelines now include the “element of pronunciation” to the Listening and Speaking sections. Changes are certainly afoot! I view the growth of professional and technological support for pronunciation instruction as a massive boon to the field of language teaching. My intention is to be fully prepared when a student knocks at my office door, so that I too can take a turn in sharing the secrets to the sounds of French.

References

Cámara-Arenas, E., Tejedor-García, C., Tomas-Vázquez, C. J., & Escudero-Mancebo, D. (2023). Automatic pronunciation assessment vs. automatic speech recognition: A study of conflicting conditions for L2-English. Language Learning & Technology, 27(1), 1–19.

Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research‐based approach. TESOL quarterly, 39(3), 379-397.

García, C., Nickolai, D., & Jones, L. (2020). Traditional versus ASR-based pronunciation instruction. Calico Journal, 37(3), 213-232.

Inceoglu, S., Chen, W. H., & Lim, H. (2023). Assessment of L2 intelligibility: Comparing L1 listeners and automatic speech recognition. ReCALL, 35(1), 89–104.

Lee, J., Jang, J., & Plonsky, L. (2015). The effectiveness of second language pronunciation instruction: A meta-analysis. Applied Linguistics, 36(3), 345-366.

Levis, J. & LeVelle, K. (2010). Rebuilding a professional space for pronunciation. In J. Levis & K. LeVelle (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1st Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, Iowa State University, Sept. 2009. (pp. 1-9), Ames, IA: Iowa State University. 

Levis, J. M., & McCrocklin, S. (2018). Reflective and effective teaching of pronunciation. In Issues in applying SLA theories toward reflective and effective teaching (pp. 77-89). Brill.

Levis, J. M. (2022). Teaching pronunciation: Truths and lies. In: Exploring Language Education: Global and Local Perspectives (pp.39-72). Stockholm University Press. 

Levis, J., & Kochem, T. (2023). Pronunciation tutoring as teacher preparation. English pronunciation teaching: Theory, practice, and research findings. Multilingual Matters.

Liakin, D., Cardoso, W., & Liakina, N. (2015). Learning L2 pronunciation with a mobile speech recognizer: French/y. Calico Journal, 32(1), 1–25.

Moyer, A. (2004). Age, accent, and experience in second language acquisition: an integrated approach to critical period inquiry (Vol. 7). Multilingual Matters.

Mroz, A. P. (2023). Integrating mobile-based text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) to advance proficiency and intelligibility in French. In Technological resources for second language pronunciation learning and teaching: Research-based approaches (pp. 147–169).

Nickolai, D., Schaefer, E., & Figueroa, P. (2024). Aggregating the evidence of automatic speech recognition research claims in CALL. System, 121, 103250.

Velázquez-López, D., & Lord, G. (2021). Five things to know about teaching pronunciation with technology. CALICO Infobytes. Retrieved from: https://calico.org/infobytes (accessed on 20 August 2024).