A pilot study on the effectiveness of pronunciation teaching to EFL learners through focus on forms and focus on form instruction
Date
2012
Authors
Chiba, Kaya, author
Flahive, Douglas, advisor
Ehlers-Zavala, Fabiola, committee member
Beecken, Masako, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
Ten Japanese university students participated in a 12-week English pronunciation instruction, in which the learners practiced segmentals and suprasegmentals in controlled activities with a focus on the accuracy (focus on forms) and practiced them in meaningful communication contexts while paying attention to the pronunciation (focus on form). They received the total of 20 hours of pronunciation instruction. The participants read a diagnostic passage before and immediately after the instruction. Ten Japanese EFL students were employed as a control group. Ten native speakers of English rated the comprehensibility (ease of understanding) and the accentedness (how different from NS's norms) of the utterances produced before and after the instruction by the learners in the experimental and the control groups. The results showed that the experimental group improved in terms of comprehensibility while the control did not. As for accentedness, neither group showed any improvement.