1

Imitating English Oral Texts:A Useful Tool to

Learn English Pronunciation?

Presenter: Sze-Chu Liu

Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Teresa Hsu

2013/04/15

2

Citation

Ibarrola , A. L. (2011). Imitating

English oral texts: A useful tool to

learn English pronunciation? Porta Linguarum,16, 49-63.

3

Introduction

Literature Review

Method

Results

Conclusions

Reflection

Outline

4

INTRODUCTION

5

The acknowledgement that good

pronunciation plays a paramount role in

the acquisition of a foreign language is

nowadays undisputed.

Introduction

6

The teaching of pronunciation still remains

scarce or even consigned to oblivion.

(Barrera Pardo, 2004; Brown, 1991;

Samuda, 1993; Walker, 1999)

Introduction

7

Reading aloud constitutes a staple of the

classroom diet.

(Gabrielatos, 2002: 1)

Several researchers have recently

enhanced the value of reading aloud for

the classroom.

(Birch, 2002; Gibson, 2008).

Introduction

8

Introduction

9

LITERATURE REVIEW

10

Research data showed that bad

pronunciation is usually the main reason

for communication breakdowns among

EFL students.

(Celce-Murcia et al., 1996)

Literature Review

11

Suprasegmental features

(intonation, rhythm and stress) are more

crucial to successful communication than

the segments.

(Anderson-Hsieh, 1992; Brazil, 1997;

Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994; Moyer, 1999;

Munro & Derwing, 2001; Pennington, 1989)

Literature Review

12

Literature Review

Reading aloud reinforces grapho-

phonemic correspondences.

Reading aloud aids the

acquisition of prosodic features.

Reading aloud also helps anxious

students to feel more able to

speak.

The Role of Reading Aloud

and of Imitation

13

Research questions

Will the students improve their pronunciation

via reading aloud oral text s from film or TV?

If the students improve their pronunciation

when reading, will they be able to transfer the

improvements to their free speech?

Will the students find the reading aloud

activity useful as a tool to improve their

pronunciation?

Literature Review

14

METHOD

15

• Total: 15Number

• 20-year-old Spanish native

speakers

• Students of Teacher Training

Programme for EFL Primary

School Teachers at a Spanish

University

• 13 females, 2 males

Profile

• B2 level following the Common

European Framework of

Reference for Languages (2001)

Background

Method

Participants

16

• 14-week Phonology Course

• 3 hours for each week

Period

• Recordings of English oral

texts from videos or TVMaterial

•One hour per week for

English Phonology

•Two hours per week for a

practical workshop, reading

the texts aloud imitating the

pronunciation of the original

recordings

Teaching

activities

Method

Course Description

17

Fill in a questionnaire

with their own

impressions

Pre-test

Training

Course

Post-test

Method

Data Collection

Record one

extract from a

film or TV series

in English

(approx. 1

minute)

R1

Speak freely about a

topic of their choice

for one minute

Re-read R1 R2

FS

QR

18

Method

Rating Procedure

Pretest

Posttest

S2S1 S15

R1

R2

FS

The pronunciation quality of each

utterance is scored by 4 20-year-old

native English speakers, on a 1-10

scale.

19

1-4 scale

1: not useful

2: a bit useful

3: quite useful

4: very useful

Method

Questionnaires

20

RESULTS

21

Results1. Will the students improve their

pronunciation when reading?

Figure 1: Group results: R1 vs. R2 (1-10 scale)

22

Results1. Will the students improve their

pronunciation when reading?

Figure 2: Individual results: R1 vs. R2 (1-10 scale)

??

?

23

Results2. If the students’ pronunciation when

reading improves, will they be able to

transfer the improvements to their FS?

Figure 3: Individual results: FS vs. R2 (1-10 scale)

24

Results3. Will the students find the reading aloud

activity useful as a tool to improve their

pronunciation?

Figure 4: Individual results: Usefulness survey (1-4 scale).

25

CONCLUSIONS

26

The students’ scores showed only

moderate improvement in their

pronunciation.

The free speeches were more intelligible

but did not seem to have more English-

like suprasegmental features.

The students’ opinions showed that all

students felt very satisfied with the

imitation practice.

Conclusions

27

REFLECTION

28

Weakness of this paper can be found:

The sample size is not sufficient.

Lack of control group makes it difficult to

draw a firm conclusion.

The materials for pre- and post- tests differ

from student to student.

The raters’ reliability was not shown.

Reflection

29

Thank you for listening!