Presentation

An Integrated Approach to Pronunciation: Listening Comprehension and Intelligibility in Theory and Practice

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Abstract

This paper introduces a theoretical basis for understanding the relationship between speaking and listening as an auditory feedback loop, in which speakers use their own mental model of a sound as input. We argue that speaking and listening are related: production facilitates perception, promoting more intelligible spontaneous speech and enhanced listening comprehension. Since learners use their own speech production as a filter, we suggest a model based on convergent production. The model is compared to Flege's Speech-Learning Model and also applied to the practical problem of pronunciation instruction. We identify four major components of pronunciation instruction: connected speech features, suprasegmental features, inflectional morphology, and segmentals. Within this integrated model of pronunciation, the route to successful listening comprehension is through auditory feedback wherein the learner's own increasingly target-like speech production facilitates and reinforces perception. We introduce specifics for promoting learners’ convergent output: spoken models, visual aides, and oral or written descriptions. A teacher-student partnership in which teachers offer a principled approach to corrective feedback in the form of production prompts is advocated. In our model, pronunciation instruction accompanies and reinforces core language instruction, and integrated pronunciation instruction is viewed as a highly focused, metacognitive approach to the entire language classroom.

How to Cite:

Reed, M. & Michaud, C., (2010) “An Integrated Approach to Pronunciation: Listening Comprehension and Intelligibility in Theory and Practice”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 2(1).