Teaching Pronunciation with

Phonetics in a Beginner French

Course

Impact on Sound Discrimination

Jessica Sertling Millermillerjs@uwec.edu

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

PSLLT 2011

2

Introduction

Phonetics taught in advanced classes

Why not earlier?

Phonetics in French 101?

3

Observations

Balancing writing & speaking

Challenges: time constraints, students’ varied abilities and interest, teachers’ training.

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Attitudes

Pronunciation - 90%Vocabulary - 86%Grammar - 73%Culture - 43%

Rated as “very important” by students

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Phonetics 101: Potential Benefits

To avoid fossilization

To apply concepts early on

To give students learning tools

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Phonetics 101: Potential

Drawbacks

IPA symbols = foreign code

Time-consuming

Not communicative, not authentic

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Pedagogical Goals

Acquisition of fundamental principles

Intelligibility

Functionality

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Research Questions

Explicit instruction = positive impact (Elliot on Spanish L2 pronunciation, 1997)

IPA = positive impact(Kendrick on English L2 pronunciation and discrimination, 1997)

IPA = efficient teaching tool(Morin on Spanish teaching education, 2007)

What impact on speaking

and listening

in a beginner college French course?

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Experimental Design

4 target sets of sounds

2 teaching methods

Counterbalanced groups

15-minute lessons, every 2 weeks

Sound discrimination test after each lesson

Target Sounds

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Reference Approach

Comparing & contrastingReflection on spelling to sound

Repetition of sounds

Written & oral application

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Phonetics Approach

Comparing & contrasting (IPA)Reflection on spelling to soundArticulatory information

Repetition of sounds

Written & oral application (IPA)

Results: Discrimination

Teaching & Learning Survey

“Among the teaching techniques used by your instructor this semester, describe one or more that you feel helped improve your listening comprehension of French and explain how it helped.”

Content Analysis

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Discussion

Explicit instruction preferred by learnersPhonetic approach is favored by them:it addresses various learning styles.Short-term vs. long-term effect?

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In Support of Phonetics

Importance of explicit instruction

IPA shows what is not heard

Learning tool: notes, dictionaries

Assessment tool: written and oral exams

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Conclusion

Two ways of approaching instruction

What matters: drawing attention

Phonetics 101 to prepare for 300 level

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Learners’ Comments

• “The handouts describing the differences in pronunciation (...) were very helpful. Rather than overwhelming the class with all sorts of pronunciation rules, it focused in on some of the most important and allowed us to directly compare two (or more) commonly mispronounced sounds.”

• “I thought when we used the phonetic symbols with different words such as vous and vu, and the teacher explained the difference between them, was very helpful to me.”

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Learners’ Comments

• “I think the phonetics alphabet helped me. Sometimes you look at a word and trying to pronounce it seems overwhelming, but having it written in only phonetics tells you exactly what sounds to make.”

• “(...) I would have liked to spend more time with pronunciation. For example, doing more exercises with different partners, or going over some of the more difficult words for 5 mins. at the beginning of each class period.”

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Future Research

Exploring current pedagogies

Designing communicative tasks using IPA

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Thank You!

UW-System Leadership Site for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

UW-System Office of Professional and Instructional Development

UW-Eau Claire Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates

UW-Eau Claire Student Differential Tuition Funds

UW-Eau Claire Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning