Current Approaches to Pronunciation Instruction: A Longitudinal Case Study in French

Abstract

A body of previous work in second‐ and foreign language pronunciation instruction (e.g., Lord, 2005; Miller, 2012) has shown that explicit phonetic and pronunciation instruction is beneficial. However, Olson (2014) noted that just a few minutes per week of instruction are devoted to pronunciation in most classrooms. What is the effect of such limited, sporadic attention to this critical aspect of language? This study traced the longitudinal development of four students over the first four semesters of French language study at a large Midwestern university. Analyses focused on a global measure of pronunciation accuracy—the number of incorrectly pronounced syllables (Lappin‐Fortin, 2018; Sturm, 2013a)—and included qualitative analyses of the types of errors participants continued to make. Results indicate that students’ pronunciation does improve to a certain extent but that progress is inconsistent both across phonemes and across students. This baseline study sets the stage for future studies of the impact of systematic, explicit instruction.