Task-Based Pronunciation

Instruction: Word Stress and Beyond

John Rothgerber
Indiana University
rothgerj@indiana.edu 1
Pronunciation Instruction
Communicative framework (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010)
Five stages:
1. Description and analysis
2. Listening discrimination
3. Controlled practice
4. Guided practice
5. Communicative practice
2
Task-Based Language Teaching
Call for use of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in
pronunciation instruction (Gurzynski-Weiss, Long, & Solon, 2017)
Task (Ellis, 2009):
1. Focus on meaning
2. Information ‘gap’
3. Learners rely on own linguistic resources
4. Clearly defined outcome / goal (non-linguistic)

3
Task-Based Pronunciation Instruction
Adaptation of ACCESS framework (Gatbonton & Segalowitz, 2005)
• Learners engage in task with high repetition of target structure
• Teacher provides brief instruction / feedback when necessary
• Learners are encouraged to attend to pronunciation

4
Lesson Plan – Word Stress
Pre-Task Phase
• Briefly introduce English word stress with examples
• Introduce target words
Task Phase
• Setup: Class is going to form a company (app developer)
• Task: Students determine who will do each job:
Designer, developer, manager, photographer
Post-Task Phase
• Feedback 5
Forming a Company
Job Descriptions:

6
Forming a Company
Job Descriptions:

7
Task – Part 1
• In groups, students state which of the four jobs they want and
their qualifications.
• If two students want the same job, then the other group
members decide who is more qualified.
Group A Group B
Student A1 Student B1
Developer Photographer
Student A2 Student A3 Student B2 Student B3
Manager Photographer Designer Developer
Student A4 Student B4 8
Designer Manager
Task – Part 2
• Students form a new pair with others who have the same job.
• Pairs exchange notes on other students and decide who is
more qualified for each job.

Student A1 Student B3
Developer Developer
Student A4 Student B2
Designer Designer
Student A2 Student B4
Manager Manager
9
Student A3 Student B1
Photographer Photographer
Task – Part 3
• Pairs report to whole class who they have chosen for each
position and why.
• Votes are tallied to determine who gets the job.
• Runner-up will be the assistant!

• Job positions can serve as the basis for further tasks…

10
A Focus on Pronunciation
• During the task, the instructor:
• monitors and provides feedback in regards to the word
stress of the four target words
• encourages students to focus on word stress
• After the task, the instructor:
• Reviews and provides feedback in regards to word stress

11
Teacher Observations
• Students seemed to enjoy the task while also clearly focusing
on the correct word stress of the target words.
• Multiple instances of student-student feedback and language-
related episodes about word stress.
• Word stress focus even carried over to non-target words.

12
General Thoughts
• Pronunciation focus can be incorporated into other task-based
lessons.
• Initial explicit instruction is minimized:
• Enough to get started; after that, feedback
• Keep focus small and manageable.
• A few target words / segmentals / suprasegmentals
• Repetition is key
• Keep students focused on pronunciation.
• Communication breakdown / task failure does not often 13
occur from pronunciation difficulties alone.
Questions?

Email: rothgerj@indiana.edu 14
References
• Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2010). Teaching
pronunciation hardback with audio CDs (2): A course book and
reference guide. Cambridge University Press.
• Ellis, R. (2009). Task‐based language teaching: Sorting out the
misunderstandings. International Journal of Applied Linguistics,
19(3), 221-246.
• Gatbonton, E., & Segalowitz, N. (2005). Rethinking communicative
language teaching: A focus on access to fluency. Canadian Modern
Language Review, 61(3), 325-353.
• Gurzynski-Weiss, L., Long, A. Y., & Solon, M. (2017). TBLT and L2
pronunciation: Do the benefits of tasks extend beyond grammar and 15
lexis?. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 39(2), 213-224.