Integrating form and meaning in L2 pronunciation instruction

One of the central challenges of ESL teaching is striking the right balance between form and meaning. In pronunciation pedagogy, this challenge is compounded because repetitive practice, which has been shown to enhance phonological acquisition and promote fluency, is widely viewed as being incompatible with communicative principles. This article provides a brief historical background for modern pronunciation pedagogy (from World War II to the present) as part of a backdrop for understanding the current disjuncture between pronunciation and communicative language teaching. A discussion on form-focused instruction, its applicability for pronunciation pedagogy, and challenges in implementation follows with reference to a recent article that presents evidence for the appropriateness of a communicative instructional framework for teaching L2 pronunciation (Trofimovich & Gatbonton, 2006). Finally, a communicative activity that encourages repetitive practice while integrating pronunciation with other components of language use is proposed

Deconstructing comprehensibility: identifying the linguistic influences on listeners' L2 comprehensibility ratings

Comprehensibility, a major concept in second language (L2) pronunciation research that denotes listeners’ perceptions of how easily they understand L2 speech, is central to interlocutors’ communicative success in real-world contexts. Although comprehensibility has been modeled in several L2 oral proficiency scales—for example, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS)—shortcomings of existing scales (e.g., vague descriptors) reflect limited empirical evidence as to which linguistic aspects influence listeners’ judgments of L2 comprehensibility at different ability levels. To address this gap, a mixed-methods approach was used in the present study to gain a deeper understanding of the linguistic aspects underlying listeners’ L2 comprehensibility ratings. First, speech samples of 40 native French learners of English were analyzed using 19 quantitative speech measures, including segmental, suprasegmental, fluency, lexical, grammatical, and discourse-level variables. These measures were then correlated with 60 native English listeners’ scalar judgments of the speakers’ comprehensibility. Next, three English as a second language (ESL) teachers provided introspective reports on the linguistic aspects of speech that they attended to when judging L2 comprehensibility. Following data triangulation, five speech measures were identified that clearly distinguished between L2 learners at different comprehensibility levels. Lexical richness and fluency measures differentiated between low-level learners; grammatical and discourse-level measures differentiated between high-level learners; and word stress errors discriminated between learners of all levels

Experimental evaluation of atmospheric effects on radiometric measurements using the EREP of Skylab

The author has identified the following significant results. Test sites were located near the Great Salt Lake and the Salton Sea. Calculations were performed for a set of atmospheric models corresponding to the test sites, in addition to standard models for summer and winter midlatitude atmospheres with respective integrated water vapor amount of 2.4 g/sq cm and 0.9 g/sq cm. Each atmosphere was found to contain an average amount of continental aerosol. Computations were valid for high solar elevation angles. Atmospheric attenuation quantities were computed in addition to simulated EREP S192 radiances

Hong Kong secondary students' perspectives on selecting test difficultly level and learner washback: Effects of a graded approach to assessment

This sequential mixed-methods study investigates washback on learning in a high-stakes school exit examination by examining learner perceptions and reported behaviours in relation to learners’ beliefs and language learning experience, the role of other stakeholders in the washback mechanism, and socio-educational forces. The focus is the graded approach of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education English Language Examination (HKDSE-English), incorporated in 2012, that allows test-takers to choose between easier and more difficult sections for reading and listening-integrated skills papers. Inductive coding of focus groups involving 12 secondary students fed into the development of the Washback on Students’ Learning questionnaire, which was administered to another 150 learners. Exploratory factor analyses of identified washback effects revealed four major types straddling different settings (classrooms, tutorial schools, learners’ personal environment), and seven categories of mediating variables pertaining to learners themselves, other stakeholders, and societal influences. Simultaneous multiple regressions identified influential clusters of mediating variables and showed the strongest predictors for each macro-level washback type varied. At least one intrinsic and one extrinsic factor category significantly contributed to all types, reaffirming learner washback as a socially situated, negotiated construct. Implications related to the consequences, use, and fairness of the graded approach are discussed

Second language pronunciation assessment: A look at the present and the future

Over three decades ago, Michael Canale summarized what he considered to be the challenges facing language assessment in the era of communicative language learning and teaching: Just as the shift in emphasis from language form to language use has placed new demands on language teaching, so too has it placed new demands on language testing. Evaluation within a communicative approach must address, for example, new content areas such as sociolin- guistic appropriateness rules, new testing formats to permit and encour- age creative, open-ended language use, new test administration procedures to emphasize interpersonal interaction in authentic situa- tions, and new scoring procedures of a manual and judgemental nature. (Canale, 1984: 79) Applied to second language (L2) pronunciation assessment, this descrip- tion remains highly relevant today, raising a number of important issues, such as: broadening the scope of pronunciation assessment beyond the focus on a single aspect of pronunciation (e.g. segmental accuracy) or a single standard (e.g. absence of a discernible nonnative accent); targeting pronunciation assess- ment for various interlocutors in interactive settings, for instance, outside a typical focus on academic performance by students in Western societies; as well as developing and fine-tuning novel assessment instruments and proce- dures. Above all, Canale’s description aptly summarizes an ongoing quest in language assessment to capture the authenticity and interactiveness of language use (e.g. Bachman, 1990; Bachman & Palmer, 2010). The contribu- tions to this edited volume address some of the challenges identified by Canale in innovative ways. Before summarizing these contributions, we hasten to add that no edited volume, including this one, can provide an exhaustive overview of all possible issues in L2 pronunciation assessment; most chapters in this volume are focused on testing or informal evaluative judgements of speech in real-world settings and not on classroom-based assessment, including diagnostic assessment or feedback on test takers’ per- formance. However, the range of topics, the variety of research methodologies and paradigms, and the scope of implications featured here make this volume a timely addition to the growing area of L2 pronunciation assessment