Second Language Pronunciation. Группа авторов

instruction on the development of L2 pronunciation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 42(4), 905–918. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263120000121

      Appendix: Doing a Basic Pronunciation Diagnostic

      Our vignettes assume that teachers perform some type of pronunciation diagnostic or needs analysis for their students. There are many ways to do such a diagnosis, depending on the teacher and students (for more, see Morley, 1991). For those unaccustomed to diagnosing pronunciation systematically, we offer a simple approach that can be used even with students who have limited English. The diagnostic process has three steps: recording, listening, and evaluating. It is not necessary to notice every detail. A general picture of important pronunciation needs emerges from the process of diagnosis.

      1 Record each student’s speech for 30 seconds or more. Alternatively, have groups of students work together doing some type of speaking or pronunciation task. This can allow more efficient diagnosis. A voice recording is sufficient, but a video recording will enable evaluation of physical movements during speech. For more advanced learners, this might result in 2–3 minutes; for low-level learners, try for at least 30 seconds. Recording can come from an interview or a monolog such as “my favorite holiday celebration.” (We do not encourage the use of reading aloud for literacy-level learners. Navigating the spelling-sound interface will lead to many errors that do not show up in free speech.)

      2 Listen to each recording, then name and evaluate the most prominent errors.

      3 Evaluate the main errors that are true for each student and for the class overall. A possible rubric is provided below.

Pronunciation Features	Holistic Scale				Errors Noticed (possible examples)
Vowel sounds	1	2	3	4	5	“hit” sounds like heat “man” and “men” similar
	Few errors			Many errors
Consonant sounds	1	2	3	4	5	Initial consonants are mostly clear. Often deletes final consonants
	Few errors			Many errors
Voice Quality Settings	1	2	3	4	5	Minimal lip and jaw movement
	Few errors			Many errors
Thought groups	1	2	3	4	5	Phrases are usually very short or very long
	Logical phrases		Phrases too short or long
Word stress	1	2	3	4	5	Longer words have no clear stress
	Correct stress			Unclear emphasis
Intonation	1	2	3	4	5	Pitch sounds monotone. Not easy to know where sentences end.
	Pitch rises & falls		Pitch flat or confusing
Overall Fluency	1	2	3	4	5	A lot of silent pauses
	Speaks smoothly			Speaks haltingly

3 Perception in Pronunciation Training

       Ron I. Thomson

       Brock University

      When my son Elliot was a toddler, he would proudly let people know that his name was “Elliort” [ɛlijɝt]. This went on for many months until one day, for posterity, I recorded him in the following exchange:

      DADDY: What’s your name?

      SON: Elliort

      DADDY: Elliort?

      SON: No! Elliort!

      DADDY: Okay, Elliort.

      SON: (laughing) DAUGHTER: (interrupting) Elliot! SON: Elliot DAUGHTER: Elliot SON: Yeah, Elliot. (after several more such exchanges) DADDY: Elliot? SON: Yes. DADDY: Say it. SON: Elliort

Without the benefit of further modeling from his preschool sister, my perceptual gaslighting continued and he continued saying “Elliort,” despite the fact that by this point he clearly perceived his own pronunciation to be incorrect. Curiously, within a couple of days, he began accurately pronouncing his name without any difficulty, and he never went back to calling himself “Elliort.” This anecdote powerfully illustrates the interaction between speech perception and production in the development of first language (L1) pronunciation. Elliot could clearly recognize the difference between accurate and inaccurate productions of his name, but he could not perfectly produce it himself. Nor had he previously appeared to notice the mismatch between his own pronunciation and how he perceived others to say his name. This demonstrates that conscious noticing during speech learning can trigger a sudden change in what seemed to be a well-established mispronunciation. It also reveals the importance of input from varied interlocutors, since Elliot was able to accurately imitate his sister’s model, but not my own pronunciation. This was probably not an accident, since her vocal tract size and shape were nearly identical to his own. In learning to accurately perceive phonetic cues associated with particular sounds and words, humans must also learn to normalize what they hear relative to the size and shape of each speaker’s vocal tract (Johnson & Sjerps, 2021). As I will make clear, a similar lag between