Reflective Practice in Pronunciation Learning

Gergana Vitanova and Ann Miller
vitanogp@email.uc.edu
University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH, USA)

Most of the literature on pronunciation deals with what and how to teach, while the learner remains an abstract, silent body in the classroom. By examining our students' reflections, we give voice to their beliefs and concerns about pronunciation learning. The findings suggest that students benefit from detailed phonetic/phonological instruction, which, in turn, allows them to employ metacognitive strategies in a larger communicative context. The article also underlines that socio-affective factors, while often ignored, are a significant aspect of pronunciation learning.

Introduction

Morley (1994) underlies that the prevalent focus in pronunciation teaching nowadays should be on designing "new-wave instructional programs" (p. 70). Moreover, she stresses that these new instructional designs should take into account not only language forms and functions, but also issues of learner self-involvement and learner strategy training. In other words, students should become active partners in their own learning, who have developed the skills to monitor and modify their speech patterns if necessary.

This action-research study has been driven by Morley's statement. We assume that by giving students the skills to analyze their language learning processes, we would help them keep improving even after they have left the context of the classroom. Reflective practice has played an important role in both teaching and learning. Pennington (1992), for example, asserts that reflective practice should become the means for not only enhancing classroom practices, but also developing motivated and confident second language learners. And yet, while reflections have had an established place in writing courses, it is not traditionally applied to pronunciation learning.

In this article, we share the results of a study, in which we asked the students of three pronunciation courses to reflect on their learning experiences. The reflections served a two-fold purpose. First, they were implemented as a tool of encouraging self-awareness and learner involvement in the process of improvement pronunciation. Second, they enabled us to "hear" our authentic students' voices and perceptions of their learning. Thus, the reflections helped us gain insight into the strategies and components of pronunciation instruction the learners found most valuable.

The Participants

The participating students were enrolled in a graduate pronunciation course in a mid-western university setting. They had diverse language backgrounds (primarily Chinese and Korean, but also Spanish, Russian, Taiwanese, Greek, French, and Indian) and academic majors. While the students' language competency varied, they all had had formal English instruction in the past, although not necessarily in pronunciation. We collected data from students from three pronunciation classes, two sections each, over the course of three quarters. The reflection prompts were open-ended, for example: Why do you wish to improve your pronunciation? What do you find most helpful in improving pronunciation? Students were given detailed consent forms in the beginning of each class, explaining that their participation would not affect their academic performance. While the students were encouraged to remain anonymous, most of them opted to use their names and seemed eager to express their concerns about pronunciation learning.

Listening to the Students' Voices: Major Themes and Findings

The following major themes emerged in the students' reflections:

Value of Phonetic and Phonological Knowledge: Part of the Consciousness Raising Process

Morley underscores the importance of speech-monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom as an important goal for pronunciation teaching. To be able to self-monitor, however, students must be aware of the phonological features and patterns underlying the second language (L2). Nevertheless, the most recent trend in pronunciation teaching claims that we should focus on teaching suprasegmentals rather than worry about the pronunciation of sounds. Our students, however, stressed the value of detailed pronunciation instructions. It is particularly interesting that all of them reflected on the improvement of segments and its role in increased functional communicability. A student, for example, wrote:

I changed my wrong consonant sounds like F, P, B, V and RL sounds into correct enunciation. I was very happy to hear that my American friends told me, "Your pronunciation is getting better.

Another student shared a more dramatic example:

Improving pronunciation is very helpful to my career, because the ability of verbal communication is very important to a nurse. One time, I told a patient that I was going to test his "bladder" function and he thought that I was going to test his "blood." In another time, when a patient needed a blinder to dark the room, I told the aid and brought me a blender. These examples not only cause my job stress, but also embarrass.

These excerpts clearly indicate that students link the acquisition of segments and combinations of sounds with improved communicative abilities. The second student also points out a connection to affective factors in learning, in this case, her emotional reactions.

Pennington's research asserts that, "The typical case in L2 acquisition seems to be that learners approach new values for phonological features gradually and piecemeal, rather than as the outcome of a rapid shift" (p. 95). The following example comes from a student, who had studied English for 14 years prior to coming to the States. It illustrates another essential link -- the one between phonetic knowledge and the ability to self-monitor:

Another big problem is that what I learned about the pronunciation of some words was wrong. And it has become a bad habit to pronounce those words in a wrong way and I even don't notice it. For example, I couldn't pronounce the word "hot" well because my pronunciation of the vowel sound was not correct. But it's kind of difficult to overcome this problem because I thought I was right and it's hard to find someone who is willing to point out all my mistakes during our conversation. "blood." In another time, when a patient needed a blinder to dark the room, I told the aid and he brought me a blender. These examples not only cause my job stress, but also embarrass.

A number of students also reflected on the importance of teaching suprasegmentals. An Asian participant, for instance, wrote:

Before I took this course, my speech tone was very flat. The most important thing is I didn't realize it, but now, I know a lot of how to divide thought groups, and where I should make an emphasis when I read sentences. I really think I make a big progress on it.

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