Designing pronunciation instruction for a specific group of learners

Designing pronunciation instruction for a specific group of learners

1. When the instructor has the opportunity and flexibility to tailor instruction to a specific group of Learners, there are some steps to guide the teacher of pronunciation.

   • Step one: find out who your learner's are and what they need
     • Step two: find language that is relevant to your learners to use as practice material
       • Step three: use these samples of authentic language to illustrate and practice specific pronunciation features
         • Step four: provide frequent and sustained choral repetition with body movement
           • Step five: give learners a chance to practice similar language in less-control activities
             • Step six: record learner's speech for feedback and review

2. Diagnostic evaluation

   • Diagnostic evaluation of pronunciation is a means of determining a learner's level of proficiency usually for the purposes of screening or placement
     • Diagnostic tests of listening discrimination should test learner's ability to distinguish both segmental and suprasegmental features
       • Consonants and Vowels
         • the teacher can use minimal pair discrimination exercises
       • word Stress
         • the teacher can ask Learners to choose the correct stress patterns for words or sentences in a text being read aloud
       • Prominance
         • these can be the same as the ones used for word stress
       • Intonation
         • the learner could be asked to determine whether the utterance has final rising or falling intonation the learner could be asked to identify which intonation counter reflects what they hear
       • Reduced Speech
         • the teacher could use a cloze passage in which commonly reduced and unstressed words have been deleted

3. Formal oral-proficiency testing instruments

   • TOEFL IBT Speaking
   • International English Language Testing System
   • Versant or Phone Pass
   • Interagency Language Toundtable (ILR) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Rating Scale
   • American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Interview and ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines
   • UCLA Test of Oral Proficiency (TOP) for International Teaching Assistants

4. Ongoing Evaluation with Feedback

   • Purpose
     • Determine the progress of Students
     • Provide informal feedback individually
   • Self-monitoring and correction
     • Self-monitor
     • Self-correct
     • Contract Learning
     • Covert Rehearsal
   • Peer Feedback
     • Minimal pair work
   • Teacher feedback and correction

5. Classroom Testing

   • Tests of perception
   • Tests of production
   • Tests of phonetic knowledge