12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Pacific
Interest Group (IG) Event
Good Pronunciation Starts with Good Perception
While teaching pronunciation has recently increased in popularity, instruction typically focuses on the product of speaking, rather than developmental processes rooted in perception. This may be an artifact of assessment. Reading tasks provide the easiest means of assessment (Thomson & Derwing, 2015). However, such tasks do not reflect learners’ underlying phonological systems and what they are able to do in the real world (Thomson, 2021). A washback effect of product-oriented assessments may explain why instruction tends to overemphasize articulation practice over developing perceptual accuracy. In this presentation, I argue that language (L1) and L2 speech learning both rely upon the same underlying cognitive mechanisms (Flege & Bohn, 2021). After describing the perceptual pathway to L1 pronunciation, I provide evidence for a similar pathway in naturalistic L2 speech learning. I then discuss why explicit instruction is necessary for adult L2 learners. I will briefly summarize empirical research demonstrating the efficacy of perceptual training for improvement in the production of English vowel and consonant, and introduce my www.englishaccentcoach.com application, which employs a well-attested perceptual training technique, and allows teachers to assess their students perception.
Date and Time
Friday, August 23 2024, 12:00-1:00 California Time
Cost
Members: Free
Non-members: $5.00
Presenter
Ron Thomson, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Applied Linguistics at Brock University, in Canada’s beautiful Niagara Region. He conducts applied research on second language speech development and is the creator of www.englishaccentcoach.com, a free web application that helps learners better perceive new English sound contrasts.
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CATESOL Zoom room
| 8/23/2024 |    |