I believe, that pronunciation and accent are very important aspects in learning a foreign language. Although, some might argue, that accents may vary from nation to nation, which is true, as different languages force for example students learning English as a foreign language to keep their own language accent. However, correct pronunciation and a little accent are the evidnce of efforts made when learning the foreign language. This is of course my personal approach, however, in my class i try to teach my students to speak the most closely to native speakers. Some teachers confess that they don't have enough time to teach pronunciation. But it is obvious to me and some of the researches done state that, that foreign language speakers can be undervalued because of their strong accents or not correct pronunciation of various words. And even that there are differences for example in British and American English word stressing or pronunciation, there is some golden middle that we should teach our students.
With the development of technologies teaching pronunciation has become an easier task i believe. One of the ways of speaking skills improvement is podcasting and the below mentioned paper states that. Using the means of new technologies may not highly increase the level of speaking skills or proficiency, but it can at least encourage the students to work on that specific skill and motivate them to develop.
The current paper reports on an investigation of podcasting as a tool for improving pronunciation skills in intermediate language learning. The authors examined the effects of using podcasts to improve pronunciation in second language learning and how students’ attitudes changed toward pronunciation over the semester. A total of 22 students in intermediate German and French courses made five scripted pronunciation recordings throughout the semester. After the pronunciation recordings, students produced three extemporaneous podcasts. Students also completed a pre- and post-survey based on Elliott’s (1995) Pronunciation Attitude Inventory to assess their perspectives regarding pronunciation. Students’ pronunciation, extemporaneous recordings, and surveys were analyzed to explore changes over the semester. Data analysis revealed that students’ pronunciation did not significantly improve in regard to accentedness or comprehensibility, perhaps because the16-week long treatment was too short to foster significant improvement and there was no in-class pronunciation practice. The podcast project, however, was perceived positively by students, and they appreciated the feedback given for each scripted recording and enjoyed opportunities for creativity during extemporaneous podcasts. Future studies might seek to delineate more specific guidelines or examine how teacher involvement might be adapted to the use of podcasts as a companion to classroom instruction.
The study sought to investigate the following questions:
1. Did students’ comprehensibility and accentedness improve from their pre-test to post-test?
2. Was there a difference in comprehensibility and accentedness between the extemporaneous podcasts and the scripted podcasts?
3. Did students’ comprehensibility and accentedness improve with each task?
4. Did students have positive attitudes
Procedure
After making their own recordings, students were required to listen to classmates’ extemporaneous podcasts and post comments on the content. The extemporaneous podcasts were graded by the instructor of each class using a rubric that took into account content, coherency and organization, pronunciation and fluency, accuracy, creativity, and impact on the listener.
Data Analysis
For the purposes of analysis, students’ podcasts (8 per student) were downloaded and stored on a computer or CD. They were assigned random numbers and then judged by two raters6 in each language, for a total of four judges in the study: one NS of the target language and one NNS (the NNS tested at or above an advanced low proficiency level) for each language. Two judges for each language were used to account for any possible variation between raters.
IN my personal opinion this method of using new technologies is an interesting and interactive, also creative tool given to the students. Most of the people, students like to share their opinions and especially knowing that it is going to be uploaded to an open auditorium and not only their peers and lectures will have access to it may motivate them to creativity.
Some of the students could react not very positive to this initiative. However, luckily during the above mentioned research students were eager to work on the tasks given. I will for sure take using podcasts in my classroom and hopefully it will contribute to the best development of speaking skills of my students.
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