Taiwan EFL Learners’

Pronunciation Strategies in

Two Learning Contexts

NA2C0003 傅學琳

Motivation

Learners’ strategic awareness in pronunciation may facilitate their acquisition of comprehensible pronunciation, and thus decrease the opportunities of being in placed unequally in L2 societies because of their strong accents.

Purpose

The study investigate the learners’ pronunciation strategies of two learning contexts, CBPT (computer-assisted) and CAPT (classroom-based)

Literature Review

A. Foci of Pronunciation Teaching

Scarcella & Oxford (1994)

Learners’ awareness plays a role in pronunciation learning. Learners’ no or few responsibility in pronunciation improvement has now been replaced by their self-monitoring, awareness, and strategies.

B. Learners’ Strategic Awareness in Pronunciation Learning

Derwing & Rossiter (2002)

When learners are misunderstood in communication, the top five common strategies are paraphrase, self-repetition, writing/spelling, volume adjustment, speaking clearly

Literature Review

C. Computer-assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT)

Pennington(1999)

CAPT provides immediate feedback, its analysis is also repeatable, so as to increase its reliability. There learners may reach automaticity of pronunciation after practice.

Literature Review

1.Is there any significant correlation between learners’ pronunciation activities employed in CAPT and CBPT?

2.Are there any significant differences in learners’ strategies between learning contexts of CAPT and CBPT?

Research Questions

3.Are there any significant differences in strategy use between learners studying in either context and learners studying in both contexts?

Research Questions

Method - Participant

120 college students who attended pronunciation training classes and who used the computer-assisted pronunciation training program at one university in Taiwan.

Based on participants’ English grades and their percentile rank, only students before 25% were chosen.

Method - Participant

CAPT (n=30) : computer-based learn pronunciation two hours a weekCBPT (n=30) : classroom-based attending classes two hours a weekBoth-A (n=30) : CAPT+CBPT only collect responses in CAPT class Both-B (n=30) : CAPT+CBPT only collect responses in CBPT class

Method - Instrument

CAPT

Different English learning software can be used freely in the labs by students.

CBPT

Students are taught by professors for two semesters, two hours a week. In the classroom, teacher would follow teaching materials and textbook.

Method - Instrument

Pronunciation Strategies Survey

A questionnaire of 5-point Likert scales, containing eight most commonly used pronunciation strategies found in Osburne’s (2003) study.

List of Pronunciation Learning Activities

To analyze how often certain pronunciation activities appear in different contexts.

依變項與自變項來源自變項 : two learning contexts

CAPT: computer-assisted

pronunciation training

CBPT: classroom-based

pronunciation training依變項 :learning activities

learners’ strategies

Data Analysis – pronunciation activity

Pronunciation Activity Computer-based Classroom-based

Picture/video 33.3% 66.7%

Teacher’s demonstration 50.5% 49.5%

Imitation 45.7% 54.3%

Minimal-pair drills 17.9% 82.1%

Intonation, stress, or rhythm practice 40.8% 59.2%

Activities based on different levels 37.9% 62.1%

Activities based on different topics 44.3% 55.7%

One on one interaction 41.1% 58.9%

Pronunciation strategies by teacher 32.7% 67.3%

Data Analysis – pronunciation activity

Pronunciation ActivityComputer-

basedClassroom-

basedTotal

Picture/video 6.9% 9.1% 8.2%

Teacher’s demonstration 19.9% 12.9% 15.7%

Imitation 15.5% 12.2% 13.5%

Minimal-pair drills 4.3% 13.1% 9.6%

Intonation, stress, or rhythm practice 14.4% 13.8% 14.1%

Activities based on different levels 7.9% 8.6% 8.3%

Activities based on different topics 14.1% 11.7% 12.6%

One on one interaction 10.8% 10.3% 10.5%

Pronunciation strategies by teacher 6.1% 8.4% 7.5%

Data Analysis – pronunciation activity

Value df Asymp. Sig (2-sided)

Chi-Square 22.973 8 .003*

Likelihood Ratio 24.434 8 .002

Linear by linear association

0.467 1 .494

Number of valid cases 696

1. The distribution of pronunciation activities between two learning contexts are different.

2. Learning context and pronunciation activities are related.

Data Analysis – learners’ strategy

1.No significant difference was found between the two learning contexts.

2.Significant differences between CAPT and Both-A, and between CBPT and Both-B

Group Mean SD

CAPT (n=30) 3.62 .69

CABT (n=30) 3.55 .81

Both-A (n=30) 4.08 .59

Both-B (n=30) 4.08 .56

Total (n=120) 3.83 .71

Discussion

A. Comparison of Learning Activities

between CAPT and CBPT

More learning activities are used in CBPT than in CAPT. It may be easier for learners to notice different activities in the classroom with the help of teachers.

Discussion

B. Learners’ Strategy Use between

CAPT and CBPT

There is no significant difference. In both learning contexts, they showed similar performance in strategy use and the learners relied on memory and imitation very much, but rarely noticed different qualities of sounds.

Discussion

C. Learners’ strategy Use in both

CAPT and CBPT

Significant differences were observed when learners had learned pronunciation in both contexts. Students are more aware of specific needs for each learning context, and have opportunities to compare their learning strategies.

Conclusion

Learning in both contexts simultaneously, learners’ use of pronunciation strategies increase obviously, it may effectively raise learners’ awareness of opportunities to practice for the final autonomous stage.

Limitations

Participants are English high achievers, and thus may have some effects on the results.

Sample size is limited for the reason of availability.

Investigate learners’ strategic knowledge more deeply through face-to-face interviews.

Larger sample size.Mix levels of participants.Different pronunciation training programs

can be analyzed.

Future Study

Contributions

The finding of this study help researchers to have clearer picture of parallel between language learning strategy and second language development.

The finding also helps teachers explore strategies that are appropriate for their students according to their proficiency.

專題的相關性

導讀論文 我的專題

自變項 Computer-assistedClassroom-based

Computer-assistedClassroom-based

依變項 Learners’ strategyPronunciation activities

Phonemic awarenessspelling

教學內容 pronunciation pronunciation

樣本 120 top 25%College students

120 mixed levelElementary school

students