Teaching Pronunciation with Phonetics in a Beginner French Course Impact on Sound Discrimination Jessica Sertling Miller [email protected] University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire PSLLT 2011
Dec 23, 2015
Teaching Pronunciation with
Phonetics in a Beginner French
Course
Impact on Sound Discrimination
Jessica Sertling [email protected]
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.
4
Attitudes
Pronunciation - 90%Vocabulary - 86%Grammar - 73%Culture - 43%
Rated as “very important” by students
5
Phonetics 101: Potential Benefits
To avoid fossilization
To apply concepts early on
To give students learning tools
6
Phonetics 101: Potential
Drawbacks
IPA symbols = foreign code
Time-consuming
Not communicative, not authentic
7
Pedagogical Goals
Acquisition of fundamental principles
Intelligibility
Functionality
8
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?
10
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
12
Reference Approach
Comparing & contrastingReflection on spelling to sound
Repetition of sounds
Written & oral application
13
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
17
Discussion
Explicit instruction preferred by learnersPhonetic approach is favored by them:it addresses various learning styles.Short-term vs. long-term effect?
18
In Support of Phonetics
Importance of explicit instruction
IPA shows what is not heard
Learning tool: notes, dictionaries
Assessment tool: written and oral exams
19
Conclusion
Two ways of approaching instruction
What matters: drawing attention
Phonetics 101 to prepare for 300 level
20
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.”
21
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.”
22
Future Research
Exploring current pedagogies
Designing communicative tasks using IPA
25
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