Title: The effectiveness of pronunciation teaching to Greek state school students
1The effectiveness of pronunciation teaching to
Greek state school students
- Eleni Tsiartsioni
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- E-mail eltsiart_at_enl.auth.gr
- 14th GALA Conference,
- Thessaloniki 14th -16th December 2007
2REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON PRONUNCIATION TEACHING
- the teaching of pronunciation has been
considered almost a luxury in the ESL/ EFL
curriculum (Goodwin, Brinton and Celce-Murcia
1994) - an orphan in English programs around the world
(Gilbert 1994) - pronunciation has been marginalized within the
field of applied linguistics. As a result,
teachers are left with little direction
(Derwing and Murno 2005)
3Pardos (2005) conclusions on pronunciation
teaching
- There is a positive effect of well-planned,
quality pronunciation training (out of the 25
studies reviewed, 23 reported improved
pronunciation after instruction). - Use should be made of specific teaching
techniques pronunciation is not simply
picked-up.
4Age of onset in Foreign Language (FL) contexts
- The BAF Project (University of Barcelona)
- Age of onset in FL contexts and exposure were not
determinants for perceiving and producing L2
sounds in a native-like manner. - Later starting age tended to result in better
pronunciation and perception - Increased input and explicit phonetic
instruction beneficial in FL contexts. - (Fullana 2006)
5THEORIES OF PHONOLOGICAL ACQUISITION
- Theories of Markedness (Eckman 1987)
- Unmarked features voiceless stops
- Marked phenomena aspiration, vowel duration
differences - New vs similar sounds,
- equivalence classification- Speech Learning
Model (Flege 1986, 1991, 1997) - Present study the acquisition of word initial
stops involves a similar contrast.
6TYPES OF MEASUREMENTS
- Voice Onset Time (VOT) the time interval between
the release of the stops closure and the onset
of voicing, which may precede or follow the burst - Aspiration the voiceless noise interval between
the release of the stop and the onset of glottal
vibration (sounds like a puff of air) - Vowel duration before word final stops
7Differences between the Greek and English stop
system
- GREEK
- Initial stops
- -Voiceless unaspirated /p, t, k/, short VOT
- -/b, d, g/ fully voiced, negative VOT
- ENGLISH
- Initial stops
- -Voiceless aspirated
- /p, t, k/, long positive VOT
- -/b, d, g/ voiceless, or partially voiced,
unaspirated, short VOT - Vowel length
- vowels longer before voiced stops than before
voiceless stops
8QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY
- 1. Is pronunciation teaching to children
effective in a foreign language environment? - 2. Does age play a role in the acquisition of
pronunciation in a foreign language environment?
For example, are students of younger age more
favourably predisposed to acquiring FL
pronunciation, as happens in naturalistic second
language settings? - 3. Are some phonological features acquired more
successfully than others? To what extent are the
theoretical models confirmed?
9METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY (1)
- Control group (N12) no pronunciation teaching
- Experimental group (N12)
- 12 pronunciation lessons embedded in the English
classes at school (20-40 minutes each) - Subjects
- 4 ten-year-old children (Age-group A)
- 4 thirteen-year-old children (Age-group B)
- 4 fifteen-year-old children (Age-group C)
10METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY (2)
- Subjects proficiency level A1, A2, B1
- Onset age of FL learning9 years old
- Recordings before and after the teaching
intervention (Time 1,Time 2) - Recordings of L1 Greek and English by 6 native
Greek and 6 native English children (2 of each
age group)
11Recording materialsfor English and Greek
- For English
- Pack, Tab, Cab, Bag, Dab, Gab Gap-Gab,
Bat-Bad, Back-Bag - For Greek
- ??sa /pasa/, ??sa /tasa/, ??sa /kasa/, ?p??a
/bala/, G??µa /gama/, ?t?µa /dama/ - 3 repetitions of each word
12Framework for pronunciation teaching
(Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin 1996)
- Description and analysis of features.
- Listening discrimination activities
- Controlled practice and feedback
- Guided practice and feedback
- Communicative practice and feedback
13RESULTS Initial /p, t, k/- aspiration (1)
14RESULTS (2)
15RESULTS (3)
16RESULTS (4)
17 Results Within group comparisons (5)
18RESULTS Initial /b, d, g/-voicing (6)
19RESULTS (7) voiced stops in English L2, Age
Group A
- Control group no improvement
- Experimental group improvement for individual
subjects - 1 out of 4 subjects partly devoiced 66 of the
repetitions for /d/ and /g/ - 1 subject target-like /g/
20RESULTS (8) voiced stops in English L2, Age
Group B
- Control group no improvement
- Experimental group some improvement for all
subjects - 3 out of 4 subjects devoiced /d/
- 1 out of 4 partly devoiced /d/ at 33 of
repetitions - 2 out of 4 produced partly voiced /g/ at 33 of
the repetitions.
21RESULTS (9) voiced stops in English L2, Age
Group C
- Control group no improvement
- Experimental group reduced VOT at Time 2
- 2 out of 4 subjects target-like /b/
- 1 subject partly devoiced 33 of the repetitions
for /b/ - 1 out of 4 subjects devoiced all three stops at
initial position
22RESULTS Vowel length before word final stops (10)
23RESULTS (11)
24DISCUSSION Relation to initial questions (1)
- 1. Is pronunciation teaching to children
effective in a foreign language environment? - Strategically planned pronunciation teaching
seems to be effective with children and teenagers
even in a FL environment. - Even though the teaching intervention was rather
short, students pronunciation improved in two of
the three features taught. - No improvement for the groups that followed the
regular school programme.
25DISCUSSION Relation to initial questions (2)
- 2. Does age play a role in the acquisition of
pronunciation in a classroom environment? - The youngest age group did not learn the English
pronunciation easier or faster than the older
groups. - 13-year-old students showed the biggest
improvement in pronunciation - Their advantage over the 10-year-old group
cognitive development and maturation - Their advantage over the 15-year-old group
fossilization has not occurred in their speech
yet
26DISCUSSION Relation to initial questions (3)
- 3. Are some phonological features acquired more
successfully than others? - Aspiration showed the biggest improvement of all
features it increased for almost all
places of articulation for all age groups. - It was also the first feature to be learnt
compared with stop devoicing and vowel
lengthening - Possible explanations
- Aspiration is perceptually more salient than
devoicing or vowel length - It is easier to demonstrate with visual aids
while teaching - The learning of a frication feature, such as
aspiration, may be easier that the learning of a
time feature, i.e. vowel length
27DISCUSSION Relation to initial questions (4)
- To what extent are the theoretical models
confirmed? - Our expectation that stop devoicing would be
easier to acquire than aspiration due to
markedness is not confirmed - Markedness, however, can explain the lack of
improvement for vowel lengthening (a marked
feature) - Evidence for Fleges SLM intermediate VOT
values between Greek and English , possibly
because of equivalence classification - Exception native-like production for /k/ by the
13 and 15-year-old groups.
28CONCLUSION (1)
- Aspiration was the first feature to be learnt and
showed the biggest improvement of all features
that were taught - 13-year-old group the biggest improvement,
maybe due to cognitive maturation and lack of
fossilization - Years of experience did not result in better
pronunciation (no differences among age-groups at
Time 1)
29CONCLUSION (2)
- 4. Considerable effect of pronunciation
instruction, even after 12 mini-lessons. - Pronunciation teaching is not only applicable
but also very effective - 5. In FL contexts, improvement in pronunciation
comes as a result of explicit and strategically
planned pronunciation instruction. - It appears that pronunciation is not acquired in
FL contexts unless it is taught.
30Acknowledgments
- Dr Katerina Nikolaidou
- Dr Marina Matthaioudaki
- Participants of the study, their teachers and
their school headmasters - The Pedagogical Institute