Presentation

Teaching Pronunciation With Phonetics in a Beginner French Course: Impact on Sound Perception

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Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that L2 learners’ pronunciation benefits from explicit instruction. The present exploratory study examines how two different teaching methods impact L2 French learners’ sound discrimination skills. One approach employs phonetics and explicit teaching while the other relies on reference words and repeating after the instructor. Results from discrimination tests helped gauge the learners’ aural performances. Written surveys addressed the effectiveness of the two teaching methods from the students’ perspectives. Qualitative analyses suggested that a majority of students favored explicit instruction. They reported benefitting from using phonetic symbols to compare and contrast French sounds. Quantitative analyses indicated that discrimination improved regardless of the explicit teaching approach but only significantly when the phonetic approach was introduced before the reference approach. Therefore, the phonetic method may have a positive impact in the short term and the reference method in the long term. Combining methods at different stages of the learning process may be the most efficient way to help learners discriminate foreign sounds accurately.

How to Cite:

Miller, J. S., (2011) “Teaching Pronunciation With Phonetics in a Beginner French Course: Impact on Sound Perception”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 3(1).