35.1038, Review: English Pronunciation Teaching: Sardegna and Jarosz (eds.) (2023)

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Subject: 35.1038, Review: English Pronunciation Teaching: Sardegna and Jarosz (eds.) (2023)

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Date: 25-Mar-2024
From: Asmaa Shehata [asm.shehata at gmail.com]
Subject: Applied Linguistics: Sardegna and Jarosz (eds.) (2023)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.982

EDITOR: Veronica G. Sardegna
EDITOR: Anna Jarosz
TITLE: English Pronunciation Teaching
SUBTITLE: Theory, Practice and Research Findings
SERIES TITLE: Second Language Acquisition
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: Asmaa Shehata

SUMMARY

“English Pronunciation Teaching” is an edited volume compiled by
Veronica G. Sardegna and Anna Jarosz on methodologies and research for
teaching English Pronunciation. It is dedicated to Professor Ewa
Wanik-Klimchak. The purpose of this book is to present a
research-based knowledge of what makes for efficient English
pronunciation instruction. The volume contains five parts.
Part I includes two main chapters. Chapter 1 is an introductory
chapter in which the two editors provide background information about
the edited collection. They first introduce the reasons for teaching
English pronunciation, including raising learners’ awareness, followed
by a clarification of the book's purpose, focus, aims, intended
readers, and structure. Chapter 2, “Key Aspects of Pronunciation
Learning and Teaching,” by Anna Jarosz, presents an overview of
relevant terminology in reaction to pronunciation learning and
teaching including segmentals (i.e., vowels, and consonants,
suprasegmentals such as stress, intonation, and rhythm), language
fluency, and accuracy. Next, Jarosz clarifies the goals of
pronunciation teaching, highlighting the terms of intelligibility,
nativeness, comprehensibility, and accentedness as defined by previous
researchers. For her, it is crucial to possess a thorough grasp of all
primary facets related to learning and teaching pronunciation to
foster a constructive and motivating discussion on pronunciation
instruction.
Drawing on their backgrounds as educators and researchers, the authors
of Part II, “Theoretical Perspectives,” discuss models and factors
that affect English pronunciation education in four chapters,
proposing pedagogical practices and future research opportunities.
Chapter 3, “The Effects of Learner and Instructional Variables on
English Pronunciation Learning: What Teachers Need to Know,” by
Veronica G. Sardegna, presents her empirically based pronunciation
instruction model. This model is called the “Enhanced Covert Rehearsal
Model,” which aims to present the possible ways for phonetically
marking words and sentence stress. The chapter starts with a very
brief description of findings of how student and instructional
variables affect pronunciation learning outcomes. Next, the “Covert
Rehearsal Model” (CRM) and “Enhanced-CRM” are introduced, emphasizing
the roles played by the teacher and the student in the latter. Using
empirical results, the chapter ends with pedagogical suggestions for
instructors. Chapter 4, “The Limitations of Imitation: Instilling
Metalinguistic Awareness of the Discourse and Pragmatic Functions of
English Intonation,” by Marenie Reed, aims to emphasize the
significance of teaching English prosody to English language learners
from various first language (L1) backgrounds. To this end, it provides
an empirically supported approach to teaching English prosodic
features that progresses from focusing on the alternating stress
assignment of di- and multisyllabic words and phrases to taking
sentence- and discourse-level factors into account.
Miroslaw Pawlak explores the influence of individual difference (ID)
factors on pronunciation instruction in Chapter 5, “The Mediating Role
of Individual Differences in Pronunciation Instruction: Extending the
Research Agenda.” The chapter initially reviews recent research
studies that involve ID factors in reaction to pronunciation learning.
It then summarizes research on the influence of ID factors on
pronunciation instruction approaches and makes recommendations for
future research paths. The discussion of methodological considerations
for planning and carrying out empirical research follows. The chapter
concludes with some observations on the need for more study on the
relationship between pronunciation training and ID variables. Chapter
6, “English Pronunciation in a Context Between ESL and EFL: The
Swedish Case,” by Mara Haslam, focuses on the Swedish context that has
elements of both EFL and ESL environments. The purpose is to shed
light on Swedish teachers’ and students' attitudes, preferences, and
behaviors concerning English pronunciation practices. The chapter's
conclusion emphasizes the need to expose learners to a range of
pronunciation models so that they can choose the one that best suits
their needs and encourages reflection. The implications of this
methodology for teaching pronunciation and training pronunciation
teachers in Sweden and other comparable settings are provided.
Part III, “Practical Perspectives and Research Findings”, presents
evidence-based practical insights into various facets of pronunciation
teaching and learning, encompassing both the measurable effectiveness
of instructional models and techniques, as well as the preferences and
decisions made by learners in their practice. In this realm, Chapter
7, “Improving the Pronunciation of English Polysyllabic Words through
Orthographic Word-Stress Rules,” coauthored by Veronica Sardegna and
Wayne Dickerson, looks into how well a model that provides students
with pronunciation rules enhances their proficiency in stressing
English polysyllabic words. Through a comparison of the explicit and
implicit learning outcomes of two groups of twelve ESL learners each,
the study highlights the significance of scaffolded learning in terms
of increasing awareness, providing continuous feedback, and thoroughly
outlining learning procedures and pronunciation standards. In the same
vein, Magdalena Szyszka in Chapter 8, “Intelligibility and Situated
Pronunciation Learning Strategies,” delves into the specific
pronunciation learning strategies employed by learners as they strive
to enhance their pronunciation skills. This exploration reveals the
distinct types of strategies employed by both high- and
low-intelligible learners before and during a read-aloud assignment.
In both the task preparation and performance phases, high-intelligible
learners exhibited the application of both cognitive and metacognitive
strategies across a range of suprasegmental features. Low-intelligible
learners, on the other hand, used memory strategies throughout the
performance stage and cognitive strategies, especially during the
preparation stage. Additionally, the study provides pedagogical
recommendations for educators based on the identified pronunciation
learning strategies.
Chapter 9, “Foreign Language Accent Imitation: Matching Production
with Perception,” by Alice Henderson and Arkadiuz Rojczyk, scrutinizes
the use of imitating a foreign language accent as a pronunciation
training method. It presents a study that compares acoustic data and
listener evaluations to investigate five hypotheses. The analysis of
the perception and production data revealed significant disparities
between the two modalities. Even though the production data showed
that imitation had a minimal effect on the attributes under
consideration, the perception results indicated that the imitation
process was fairly successful. The final section of the chapter
provides significant clarification on the pronunciation feature
learning hierarchy. In contrast, Chapter 10, “Learners’ Views on the
Usefulness of L2 Perceptual Training” by Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova,
looks at how learners perceive the effectiveness of a method of L2
perception training that combines communicative, perceptual, and
explicit phonetic instruction for teaching English front vowels. The
findings demonstrate that the training enhances learners' awareness of
their English pronunciation and helps them pronounce the target front
vowels more accurately. The chapter concludes with several pedagogical
implications regarding the study’s findings, including the positive
role of explicit teaching of L2 phonetics, authentic speech with high
variability stimuli, and corrective feedback.
In Chapter 11, “Pronunciation and Intelligibility in English-Medium
Instruction (EMI): Lecturers’ Views and Skills”, Esther Gomez-Lacabex
and Francisco Gallardo-del-Puerto conducted two studies. While the
first study investigates how English-Mandarin instruction teachers
perceive and teach pronunciation, the second study explores the
intelligibility of a male EMI teacher's speech before, during, and
following his involvement in a pronunciation awareness session. It was
found that the EMI instructors acknowledged their need for
instructional assistance to improve their speech intelligibility.
Moreover, Chapter 12, “Exploring How Teachers’ Pronunciation Beliefs
Affect Their Classroom Practices” by Anna Jarosz, examines the
influence of teachers’ professional identity and cognition on their
pronunciation instruction and learning outcomes. To this end, the
beliefs and actual teaching practices of three EFL teachers of English
pronunciation in Polish classrooms were explored in a case study. Each
teacher was observed three times in addition to being interviewed and
taking part in follow-up individual feedback sessions. The findings
showed the teachers' confidence in their pronunciation as well as
their views on the importance of teaching pronunciation, as seen by
the corrections they made to their students' pronunciation.
Additionally, they stated that to boost their confidence in teaching
pronunciation, refresher courses were necessary. The study highlights
the need to provide in-service teachers with professional development
opportunities and training and also underlines important challenges
for teacher education programs. In Chapter 13, “L2 Pronunciation
Feedback: Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices,” Pekka
Lintunen, Aleksi Makilahde, and Pauliina Oeltinen describe how L2
feedback helps learners become more self-aware, perceptive, and
environmentally conscious. This chapter offers insights into the
attitudes and practices of teachers working in this field. It covers
topics such as how to formulate corrective feedback, how teachers’
attitudes and practices relate to feedback, how their approaches
differ depending on whether they were in simulated or real-world
learning contexts, and the role of the feedback provider.
Part IV, “Teacher Preparation,” focuses on the training guidance that
eminent pronunciation researchers have provided instructors to help
them teach pronunciation. Chapter 14, “Lessons Learned from Teaching
Teachers to Teach Pronunciation” by Tracey Derwing, initially provides
a thorough analysis of the pedagogical decisions she made in
developing a course intended to prepare student teachers to teach
English pronunciation. She further discusses the insights gained,
describing external challenges, course activities, available
resources, and the perspectives of the students who took part. Then,
in Chapter 15, “Pronunciation Tutoring as Teacher Preparation,” John
Levis and Tim Kochem present a teaching model centered on one-on-one
pronunciation tutoring within a teacher training program. The chapter
explores student teachers' viewpoints on this tutoring approach after
outlining the pedagogical structure and activities. It then suggests
useful strategies for preparing pronunciation teachers. Along the same
lines, Rebecca Oreto presents in Chapter 16, “Teaching Pronunciation
to International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) and Graduate Students,”
the particular pronunciation knowledge needed for foreign teaching
assistants, and graduate students by their teachers. The chapter also
provides a range of activities that, in the author’s experience, best
support students' efforts to become more intelligible. Chapter 17,
“Teaching Pronunciation to Older Adult EFL Learners,'' Malgorzata
Baran-Lucarz offers an abundance of educational insights by drawing on
previous research as well as the perspectives of senior adult EFL
learners and their instructors. The chapter offers several
pronunciation activities designed to satisfy the unique requirements
and academic demands of senior adult EFL learners, taking into account
factors like decreased hearing, elevated anxiety, and impaired
articulation.
In Part V, "Conclusion," Veronica Sardegna and Anna Jarson offer an
overview of the knowledge obtained from theory, practice, and
research. Chapter 18, "Pronunciation Teaching: Lessons Learned and
Future Directions,"  provides research questions and avenues of
inquiry to guide future classroom research and pedagogical models for
teaching English pronunciation.

EVALUATION

The present edited volume offers an updated review of L2 pronunciation
research. It is a unique and well-thought-out resource for all those
working in the field of English language instruction. In addition to
informing teachers of the intricacies of teaching pronunciation, it
provides them with practical methods to enhance the learning
experiences of their students. Apart from its extensive theoretical
coverage, an added benefit is the supplementary material in every
chapter, which includes study problems, pedagogical implications,
suggestions for future research, and recommended readings as in
Chapter 14. This is especially helpful for readers who are unfamiliar
with the field or with a particular technique for gathering or
analyzing data. The volume also provides its audience with insightful
new material. Depending on one's requirements or areas of research
interest, one can read the volume entirely or selectively. The index
at the end of the volume provides helpful guidance in this regard. The
book may be required reading for teacher preparation courses that
focus on teaching English, and the chapters may become independent
reading assignments.
A minor drawback stemming from the volume's wide viewpoint is, in my
opinion, the somewhat cursory explanations of certain theories or
approaches, which hardly go beyond identifying and cataloging
important ideas, examinations, or protocols. The authors had to make
decisions about what to include and how much, and it seems that
introducing almost everything in broad strokes was the compromise.
Some content may be hard to grasp without a prior understanding of L2
pronunciation research or fieldwork, in my opinion, as a result of
these author decisions.
In sum, “English Pronunciation Teaching” is an invaluable resource for
educators who want to improve pronunciation teaching and a useful
addition to the field of English language pedagogy.

REFERENCES

Derwing, T. M. & Munro, M. J. (2015). Pronunciation fundamentals:
Evidence-based perspective for L2 teaching and research. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.

Levis, J. M. (2018). Intelligibility, oral communication, and the
teaching of pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Munro, M. J. (2017). Dimensions of pronunciation. In O. Kang, R. I.
Thomson and J. M. Murphy (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of
Contemporary English pronunciation (pp. 413-431). Abingdon: Routledge.

Sardegna, V. G. (2022). Evidence in favor of a strategy-based model
for English pronunciation instruction. Language Teaching, 55(3),
363-378.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Asmaa Shehata is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern
Languages at the University of Mississippi. Her research interests
include second language phonology with a particular focus on
cross-language speech perception and production.



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