The effectiveness of pronunciation teaching to Greek state school students

1
The 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

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REVIEW 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)

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Pardos (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.

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Age 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)

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THEORIES 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.

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TYPES 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

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Differences 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

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QUESTIONS 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?

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METHODOLOGY 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)

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METHODOLOGY 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)

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Recording 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

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Framework for pronunciation teaching
(Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin 1996)

1. Description and analysis of features.
2. Listening discrimination activities
3. Controlled practice and feedback
4. Guided practice and feedback
5. Communicative practice and feedback

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RESULTS Initial /p, t, k/- aspiration (1)
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RESULTS (2)
15
RESULTS (3)
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RESULTS (4)
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Results Within group comparisons (5)
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RESULTS Initial /b, d, g/-voicing (6)
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RESULTS (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/

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RESULTS (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.

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RESULTS (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

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RESULTS Vowel length before word final stops (10)
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RESULTS (11)
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DISCUSSION 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.

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DISCUSSION 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

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DISCUSSION 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

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DISCUSSION 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.

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CONCLUSION (1)

1. Aspiration was the first feature to be learnt and
   showed the biggest improvement of all features
   that were taught
2. 13-year-old group the biggest improvement,
   maybe due to cognitive maturation and lack of
   fossilization
3. Years of experience did not result in better
   pronunciation (no differences among age-groups at
   Time 1)

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CONCLUSION (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.

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Acknowledgments

• Dr Katerina Nikolaidou
• Dr Marina Matthaioudaki
• Participants of the study, their teachers and
  their school headmasters
• The Pedagogical Institute