phonology and SLA

[sicola at DOLPHIN.UPENN.EDU]

Hello everyone,

I am currently at the proposal stage of dissertation work, and I could use some
insight on ways to approach an issue.

Quick background: There has been a good amount of research in classroom second
language learning (SLL) that looks at the cognitive and affective benefits of
cooperative learning activities and strategies via pair or groupwork. However,
these studies all seem to focus on grammar and/or general communication
proficiency.  They never discuss L2 pronunciation.  In general, there is very
little research on L2 pronunciation. The general feeling seems to be that if
accented speakers work together they will merely learn each other's accent or
reinforce their own. However, since the studies did not have any phonological
instructional focus, this is not surprising. Is it to say, though, that if
segmental/suprasegmental features were the focus of the study, that the result
would be the same?  Is it possible that guided pronunciation
activities/tasks/lessons incorporating peer NNS-NNS interaction could yield
improvement?

In building a case, here are some of the things I need to consider:

1.  Why there has been so little work on pronunciation. Plenty of literature on:
* group/pair work, cooperative learning , keeping in mind that the research is
pretty much process, not outcomes oriented

* interlanguage phonology -- which features are more likely to respond to
the strategies that have been identified in cooperative learning

* tasks and activities -- which ones are best carried out through
cooperative groups and lead to the strategies that activate learning processes

2. One approach could be to list all the benefits of group work and findings on
 areas of language in which learners have been shown to help each other and then
apply them to features of pronunciation. For example, if learners are given open
questions rather than confirmation checks, they are more likely to revise their
previous utterances-- could that be an opportunity for phonological
modification? Same thing with wait time. The problem is that these strategies
are not exclusive to group work -- teacher led activities could also activate
them, and some  activities lend themselves to these strategies more than
others (e.e.g, tasks, vs. lessons). So then the issue is whether group
work is more likely to generate open questions, wait time, and be more
compatible with task oriented interaction.

3. Another approach would be to focus more on the pronunciation than the group
work, and come at it by asking how learners can be helped with pronunciation,
then draw from different areas, e.g., to devise and compare a set of treatments.

4. Or focus more on the group work, asking which features learners would be more
likely to address in their work with each other. In that case, I could ask
learners to work on different activities designed to focus on specific lx
features and compare the processes, strategies and outcomes.

All of these involve pronunciation and cooperative learning, but they go at them
in different ways.

SOOOOOOOO...

Any thoughts from here? Suggestions about strength of approaches? Other things I
should think about? Suggestions for studies I should read?  I've done a pretty
extensive amount of research on the values of (real) cooperative learning, and
the affective and cognitive benefits alike seem like they should be applicable
in teaching L2 pronunciation.

Thanks for the sounding board,

Laura Sicola
University of Pennsylvania

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