Intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness in L2 speech: Effects of explicit pronunciation instruction and task-supported language teaching

Abstract

While explicit instruction helps L2 learners in pronunciation learning (Lee et al., 2015; Saito & Plonsky, 2019), task-based language teaching enhances second language (L2) pronunciation development when learners are exposed to tasks that vary in complexity (Mora-Plaza et al., 2018). To help bridge the gap between laboratory and classroom settings, this study investigated the effects of explicit pronunciation instruction supported with communicative tasks in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) intact classes. Three intact first-year EFL classes at a small university in Costa Rica received explicit instruction on suprasegmentals and connected speech combined with communicative tasks that differed in complexity. Sentences taken from spontaneous speech samples elicited in a pretest and a posttest were both (a) transcribed for intelligibility and (b) rated for comprehensibility and accentedness by 36 first language (L1)-English listeners. A significant Group by Time interaction found both complex- and simple-task groups more intelligible from pretest to posttest. The simple-task group was more comprehensible in the posttest, and there were no significant changes in accentedness in any of the three groups. The results are discussed in terms of pedagogical suggestions for pronunciation instruction.

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