Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.982

EDITOR: Veronica G. Sardegna
EDITOR: Anna Jarosz
TITLE: English Pronunciation Teaching
SUBTITLE: Theory, Practice and Research Findings
SERIES TITLE: Second Language Acquisition
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: Asmaa Shehata

SUMMARY

“English Pronunciation Teaching” is an edited volume compiled by Veronica G. Sardegna and Anna Jarosz on methodologies and research for teaching English Pronunciation. It is dedicated to Professor Ewa Wanik-Klimchak. The purpose of this book is to present a research-based knowledge of what makes for efficient English pronunciation instruction. The volume contains five parts.
Part I includes two main chapters. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter in which the two editors provide background information about the edited collection. They first introduce the reasons for teaching English pronunciation, including raising learners’ awareness, followed by a clarification of the book's purpose, focus, aims, intended readers, and structure. Chapter 2, “Key Aspects of Pronunciation Learning and Teaching,” by Anna Jarosz, presents an overview of relevant terminology in reaction to pronunciation learning and teaching including segmentals (i.e., vowels, and consonants, suprasegmentals such as stress, intonation, and rhythm), language fluency, and accuracy. Next, Jarosz clarifies the goals of pronunciation teaching, highlighting the terms of intelligibility, nativeness, comprehensibility, and accentedness as defined by previous researchers. For her, it is crucial to possess a thorough grasp of all primary facets related to learning and teaching pronunciation to foster a constructive and motivating discussion on pronunciation instruction.
Drawing on their backgrounds as educators and researchers, the authors of Part II, “Theoretical Perspectives,” discuss models and factors that affect English pronunciation education in four chapters, proposing pedagogical practices and future research opportunities. Chapter 3, “The Effects of Learner and Instructional Variables on English Pronunciation Learning: What Teachers Need to Know,” by Veronica G. Sardegna, presents her empirically based pronunciation instruction model. This model is called the “Enhanced Covert Rehearsal Model,” which aims to present the possible ways for phonetically marking words and sentence stress. The chapter starts with a very brief description of findings of how student and instructional variables affect pronunciation learning outcomes. Next, the “Covert Rehearsal Model” (CRM) and “Enhanced-CRM” are introduced, emphasizing the roles played by the teacher and the student in the latter. Using empirical results, the chapter ends with pedagogical suggestions for instructors. Chapter 4, “The Limitations of Imitation: Instilling Metalinguistic Awareness of the Discourse and Pragmatic Functions of English Intonation,” by Marenie Reed, aims to emphasize the significance of teaching English prosody to English language learners from various first language (L1) backgrounds. To this end, it provides an empirically supported approach to teaching English prosodic features that progresses from focusing on the alternating stress assignment of di- and multisyllabic words and phrases to taking sentence- and discourse-level factors into account.
Miroslaw Pawlak explores the influence of individual difference (ID) factors on pronunciation instruction in Chapter 5, “The Mediating Role of Individual Differences in Pronunciation Instruction: Extending the Research Agenda.” The chapter initially reviews recent research studies that involve ID factors in reaction to pronunciation learning. It then summarizes research on the influence of ID factors on pronunciation instruction approaches and makes recommendations for future research paths. The discussion of methodological considerations for planning and carrying out empirical research follows. The chapter concludes with some observations on the need for more study on the relationship between pronunciation training and ID variables. Chapter 6, “English Pronunciation in a Context Between ESL and EFL: The Swedish Case,” by Mara Haslam, focuses on the Swedish context that has elements of both EFL and ESL environments. The purpose is to shed light on Swedish teachers’ and students' attitudes, preferences, and behaviors concerning English pronunciation practices. The chapter's conclusion emphasizes the need to expose learners to a range of pronunciation models so that they can choose the one that best suits their needs and encourages reflection. The implications of this methodology for teaching pronunciation and training pronunciation teachers in Sweden and other comparable settings are provided.
Part III, “Practical Perspectives and Research Findings”, presents evidence-based practical insights into various facets of pronunciation teaching and learning, encompassing both the measurable effectiveness of instructional models and techniques, as well as the preferences and decisions made by learners in their practice. In this realm, Chapter 7, “Improving the Pronunciation of English Polysyllabic Words through Orthographic Word-Stress Rules,” coauthored by Veronica Sardegna and Wayne Dickerson, looks into how well a model that provides students with pronunciation rules enhances their proficiency in stressing English polysyllabic words. Through a comparison of the explicit and implicit learning outcomes of two groups of twelve ESL learners each, the study highlights the significance of scaffolded learning in terms of increasing awareness, providing continuous feedback, and thoroughly outlining learning procedures and pronunciation standards. In the same vein, Magdalena Szyszka in Chapter 8, “Intelligibility and Situated Pronunciation Learning Strategies,” delves into the specific pronunciation learning strategies employed by learners as they strive to enhance their pronunciation skills. This exploration reveals the distinct types of strategies employed by both high- and low-intelligible learners before and during a read-aloud assignment. In both the task preparation and performance phases, high-intelligible learners exhibited the application of both cognitive and metacognitive strategies across a range of suprasegmental features. Low-intelligible learners, on the other hand, used memory strategies throughout the performance stage and cognitive strategies, especially during the preparation stage. Additionally, the study provides pedagogical recommendations for educators based on the identified pronunciation learning strategies.
Chapter 9, “Foreign Language Accent Imitation: Matching Production with Perception,” by Alice Henderson and Arkadiuz Rojczyk, scrutinizes the use of imitating a foreign language accent as a pronunciation training method. It presents a study that compares acoustic data and listener evaluations to investigate five hypotheses. The analysis of the perception and production data revealed significant disparities between the two modalities. Even though the production data showed that imitation had a minimal effect on the attributes under consideration, the perception results indicated that the imitation process was fairly successful. The final section of the chapter provides significant clarification on the pronunciation feature learning hierarchy. In contrast, Chapter 10, “Learners’ Views on the Usefulness of L2 Perceptual Training” by Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova, looks at how learners perceive the effectiveness of a method of L2 perception training that combines communicative, perceptual, and explicit phonetic instruction for teaching English front vowels. The findings demonstrate that the training enhances learners' awareness of their English pronunciation and helps them pronounce the target front vowels more accurately. The chapter concludes with several pedagogical implications regarding the study’s findings, including the positive role of explicit teaching of L2 phonetics, authentic speech with high variability stimuli, and corrective feedback.
In Chapter 11, “Pronunciation and Intelligibility in English-Medium Instruction (EMI): Lecturers’ Views and Skills”, Esther Gomez-Lacabex and Francisco Gallardo-del-Puerto conducted two studies. While the first study investigates how English-Mandarin instruction teachers perceive and teach pronunciation, the second study explores the intelligibility of a male EMI teacher's speech before, during, and following his involvement in a pronunciation awareness session. It was found that the EMI instructors acknowledged their need for instructional assistance to improve their speech intelligibility. Moreover, Chapter 12, “Exploring How Teachers’ Pronunciation Beliefs Affect Their Classroom Practices” by Anna Jarosz, examines the influence of teachers’ professional identity and cognition on their pronunciation instruction and learning outcomes. To this end, the beliefs and actual teaching practices of three EFL teachers of English pronunciation in Polish classrooms were explored in a case study. Each teacher was observed three times in addition to being interviewed and taking part in follow-up individual feedback sessions. The findings showed the teachers' confidence in their pronunciation as well as their views on the importance of teaching pronunciation, as seen by the corrections they made to their students' pronunciation. Additionally, they stated that to boost their confidence in teaching pronunciation, refresher courses were necessary. The study highlights the need to provide in-service teachers with professional development opportunities and training and also underlines important challenges for teacher education programs. In Chapter 13, “L2 Pronunciation Feedback: Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices,” Pekka Lintunen, Aleksi Makilahde, and Pauliina Oeltinen describe how L2 feedback helps learners become more self-aware, perceptive, and environmentally conscious. This chapter offers insights into the attitudes and practices of teachers working in this field. It covers topics such as how to formulate corrective feedback, how teachers’ attitudes and practices relate to feedback, how their approaches differ depending on whether they were in simulated or real-world learning contexts, and the role of the feedback provider.
Part IV, “Teacher Preparation,” focuses on the training guidance that eminent pronunciation researchers have provided instructors to help them teach pronunciation. Chapter 14, “Lessons Learned from Teaching Teachers to Teach Pronunciation” by Tracey Derwing, initially provides a thorough analysis of the pedagogical decisions she made in developing a course intended to prepare student teachers to teach English pronunciation. She further discusses the insights gained, describing external challenges, course activities, available resources, and the perspectives of the students who took part. Then, in Chapter 15, “Pronunciation Tutoring as Teacher Preparation,” John Levis and Tim Kochem present a teaching model centered on one-on-one pronunciation tutoring within a teacher training program. The chapter explores student teachers' viewpoints on this tutoring approach after outlining the pedagogical structure and activities. It then suggests useful strategies for preparing pronunciation teachers. Along the same lines, Rebecca Oreto presents in Chapter 16, “Teaching Pronunciation to International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) and Graduate Students,” the particular pronunciation knowledge needed for foreign teaching assistants, and graduate students by their teachers. The chapter also provides a range of activities that, in the author’s experience, best support students' efforts to become more intelligible. Chapter 17, “Teaching Pronunciation to Older Adult EFL Learners,'' Malgorzata Baran-Lucarz offers an abundance of educational insights by drawing on previous research as well as the perspectives of senior adult EFL learners and their instructors. The chapter offers several pronunciation activities designed to satisfy the unique requirements and academic demands of senior adult EFL learners, taking into account factors like decreased hearing, elevated anxiety, and impaired articulation.
In Part V, "Conclusion," Veronica Sardegna and Anna Jarson offer an overview of the knowledge obtained from theory, practice, and research. Chapter 18, "Pronunciation Teaching: Lessons Learned and Future Directions," provides research questions and avenues of inquiry to guide future classroom research and pedagogical models for teaching English pronunciation.

EVALUATION

The present edited volume offers an updated review of L2 pronunciation research. It is a unique and well-thought-out resource for all those working in the field of English language instruction. In addition to informing teachers of the intricacies of teaching pronunciation, it provides them with practical methods to enhance the learning experiences of their students. Apart from its extensive theoretical coverage, an added benefit is the supplementary material in every chapter, which includes study problems, pedagogical implications, suggestions for future research, and recommended readings as in Chapter 14. This is especially helpful for readers who are unfamiliar with the field or with a particular technique for gathering or analyzing data. The volume also provides its audience with insightful new material. Depending on one's requirements or areas of research interest, one can read the volume entirely or selectively. The index at the end of the volume provides helpful guidance in this regard. The book may be required reading for teacher preparation courses that focus on teaching English, and the chapters may become independent reading assignments.
A minor drawback stemming from the volume's wide viewpoint is, in my opinion, the somewhat cursory explanations of certain theories or approaches, which hardly go beyond identifying and cataloging important ideas, examinations, or protocols. The authors had to make decisions about what to include and how much, and it seems that introducing almost everything in broad strokes was the compromise. Some content may be hard to grasp without a prior understanding of L2 pronunciation research or fieldwork, in my opinion, as a result of these author decisions.
In sum, “English Pronunciation Teaching” is an invaluable resource for educators who want to improve pronunciation teaching and a useful addition to the field of English language pedagogy.

REFERENCES

Derwing, T. M. & Munro, M. J. (2015). Pronunciation fundamentals: Evidence-based perspective for L2 teaching and research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Levis, J. M. (2018). Intelligibility, oral communication, and the teaching of pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Munro, M. J. (2017). Dimensions of pronunciation. In O. Kang, R. I. Thomson and J. M. Murphy (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary English pronunciation (pp. 413-431). Abingdon: Routledge.

Sardegna, V. G. (2022). Evidence in favor of a strategy-based model for English pronunciation instruction. Language Teaching, 55(3), 363-378.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Asmaa Shehata is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi. Her research interests include second language phonology with a particular focus on cross-language speech perception and production.