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Teaching Pronunciation to Adult English Language Learners

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Teaching Pronunciation to Adult English Language Learners Brief July 2009 Teaching Pronunciation to Adult English Language Learners Kirsten Schaetzel, Georgetown Law Center, Washington, DC Ee Ling Low, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 1997; Gatbonton, Trofimovich, & Magid, 2005; Moyer, Background on Adult Learners 2008). Adult education programs serve both native English speakers and learners whose first, or native, language Although pronunciation is part of the curriculum in is not English. Native English speakers attend adult many adult education programs, it is often not included basic education (ABE) classes to learn basic skills in state language proficiency standards or addressed needed to improve their literacy levels and adult sec- systematically in instruction (Levis, 2005). In addition, ondary education (ASE) classes to earn high school some ESL teachers working with adult learners do not equivalency certificates. Both ABE and ASE instruc- have training in teaching pronunciation (Derwing & tion help learners achieve goals related to job, family, Munro, 2005; Levis, 2005). As a result, teachers may and further education. English language learners not be able to identify the patterns of or reasons for attend English as a second language (ESL), ABE, or learners’ pronunciation problems or have a system- workforce preparation classes to improve their oral atic way to teach the sound, stress, intonation, and and literacy skills in English and to achieve goals rhythm patterns of English. This brief reviews features similar to those of native English speakers. of languages (particularly English) that can have an impact on the teaching and learning of English pronun- Audience for This Brief ciation, discusses the research on learner acquisition of This brief is written for teachers, program adminis- pronunciation, and describes how teachers can teach trators, education researchers, and policy makers to pronunciation in their classes. provide information about evidence-based strategies for teaching pronunciation to adult English language Factors Affecting the Learning of learners. Pronunciation Recent discussion of and research on the teaching and Introduction learning of pronunciation have focused on the follow- Adult English language learners in the United States ing issues: the importance of accent, stress, intonation, approach the learning of English pronunciation from and rhythm in the comprehensibility of the speech of a wide variety of native language backgrounds. They nonnative speakers; the effects of motivation and expo- may speak languages with sound systems that vary a sure on the development of native-like pronunciation; great deal from that of English. Individuals with a Span- and the intelligibility of speech among speakers of dif- ish language background constitute the largest foreign- ferent English varieties. born population in the United States. Foreign-born U.S. residents also come from African, Asian, European, Accent and Middle Eastern countries (Center for Applied Lin- An accent is “the cumulative auditory effect of those guistics, 2009; Pew Hispanic Center, 2009; U.S. Census features of pronunciation that identify where a person Bureau, 2007). is from, regionally or socially” (Crystal, 2003, p. 3). The pronunciation goals and needs of adult English Accentedness, a “normal consequence of second lan- language learners are diverse. These goals and needs guage learning” (Derwing & Munro, 2005, p. 383), is a depend on a variety of factors, which may include the “listener’s perception of how different a speaker’s accent learners’ uses of English (in what settings and for what is from that of the L1 [first language or, in our situation, purposes), their motivation to identify with specific American English] community” (p. 385). English-speaking groups, the degree to which they want Many adult learners of English have foreign accents to sound like native speakers, and the frequency with that identify them as nonnative speakers. Some which they speak English (Flege, Frieda, & Nozawa, linguists support the idea, known as the Critical Period Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th Street NW Washington, DC 20016-1859 www.cal.org/caelanetwork Hypothesis, that a learner needs to begin learning the timed. A more accurate description is that they are language before age 7 in order to develop native-like stress based or syllable based; that is, they are not pronunciation (Lenneberg, 1967). However, more completely in one category or the other, but tend to recent research suggests that environment and moti- have more stress-timed or syllable-timed features (Low, vation may be more important factors in the develop- 2006). Stress-based rhythm is achieved through the ment of native-like pronunciation than is age at acqui- presence of reduced vowels for unstressed syllables in a sition (Marinova-Todd, Marshall, & Snow, 2000). An sentence. Function words (e.g., articles, helping verbs, understanding of the features of learner accents and prepositions) typically have reduced vowels instead their impact on intelligibility can help teachers iden- of full ones, and the reduced vowel version is known tify and address characteristics of learner pronuncia- as a weak form. For example, in the sentence “Bob can tion (Derwing & Munro, 1997). The primary aim is that swim,” the words Bob and swim have the major stress, students be understood. Good pronunciation is needed and can, which is unstressed, is pronounced [kin]—its for this, but a “perfect accent” is not (Harmer, 1991). weak form. Stress, Intonation, and Rhythm The distinction between stress- and syllable-based Munro and Derwing (1999) observed that even heav- languages is important, especially if an adult English ily accented speech is sometimes intelligible and that language learner speaks a first language that is differ- prosodic errors (i.e., errors in stress, intonation, and ent rhythmically from stress-based British or American rhythm) appear to affect intelligibility more than do English. An understanding of whether a learner’s first phonetic errors (i.e., errors in single sounds). For this language is stress based or syllable based will help a reason, pronunciation research and teaching focus both teacher plan appropriate pronunciation exercises. on the sounds of language (vowels and consonants) and In examining the role of stress—“the degree of force on suprasegmental features—that is, vocal effects that used in producing a syllable” (Crystal, 2003, p. 435)— extend over more than one sound—such as stress, sen- in intelligibility, Field (2005) asked trained listeners to tence and word intonation, and speech rhythm (Crys- transcribe recorded material when the variables of word tal, 2003; Florez, 1998; Low, 2006; Munro & Derwing, stress and vowel quality were manipulated. He deter- 1999). mined that when word stress is erroneously shifted to an Languages have traditionally been classified as either unstressed syllable, without a change in vowel quality, stress timed or syllable timed. In stress-timed languages utterances are significantly less intelligible than when (e.g., British and American English, German, Dutch, only vowel quality is manipulated. Native and nonna- Thai), “stressed syllables fall at regular intervals through- tive English speakers responded similarly when judging out an utterance” (Crystal, 2003, p. 245), and rhythm is the intelligibility of words with misplaced word stress. organized according to regularity in the timing of the O’Brien (2004) reported the results of research on stressed syllables. That is, the time between stressed the importance of stress, intonation, and rhythm for a syllables is equal because unstressed syllables are spoken native-like accent in German. Native speakers of German more quickly and vowel reduction occurs. For exam- were asked to rate American university students reading ple, the sentence “Tom runs fast” is made up of three aloud in German. It was found that the native speakers stressed syllables, as indicated by the letters in boldface. focused more on stress, intonation, and rhythm than The sentence “Meredith can run fast” is made up of on individual sounds when rating speech samples as six syllables, but only three of them are stressed. The native-like. unstressed syllables -e-, -dith, and can are spoken quickly Implications of this research for classroom instruc- and vowel reduction occurs, so the time between the tion are that teachers need to spend time teaching learn- stressed syllables tends to be equal, and both sentences ers the rules for word stress, intonation, and rhythm in take approximately the same amount of time to say. English, as well as focusing on individual sounds that In syllable-timed languages (e.g., some nonnative may be difficult for the learners in their classes. varieties of English, such as Singapore and Malaysian Motivation and Exposure English, and languages such as Tamil, Spanish, and French), syllables are said to be equal in timing (Crystal, Along with age at acquisition of a language, the learner’s 2003). All syllables are nearly equally stressed, vowel motivation for learning the language and the cultural reduction does not occur, and all syllables appear to group that the learner identifies and spends time with take the same amount of time to utter. help determine whether the learner will develop native- like pronunciation. Research has found that having a Recent phonetic research has shown that languages personal or professional goal for learning English can cannot be strictly classified
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