Promoting the correct production of English sounds in extensive reading-circle classes: Explicit vs. implicit pronunciation training

Abstract

Correct pronunciation of English words is of vital significance for mutual intelligibility in the EFLcontext. Despite its prominence in L2 learning, teachers of English cannot decide whether and how toimplement pronunciation practice into their teaching practices. For this reason, pronunciation training iswidely neglected in language classes or learners of English might learn incorrect pronunciation ofsegmental units causing fossilization in L2 setting. The importance of pronunciation training has beenhighlighted in the related literature. Keeping this fact in mind, this study aims to explore whetherexplicit pronunciation instruction has a superiority over implicit instruction in extensive reading classes.To reach this purpose, two groups of successive B1-level Intensive English Program (IEP) students werechosen through convenience sampling technique. Before training, both groups were given a pre-test ofsegmental unit pronunciation consisting of the most frequented words in the book used for the extensivereading classes at B1 level. Then the participants in the control group received implicit pronunciationtraining in which the language instructor did not directly focus on phonemic properties of Englishsounds. However, explicit pronunciation training was implemented into the teaching practices in theexperimental group. The teaching period lasted eight weeks, and following this period both groups weregiven a post-test to unravel the level of improvement in each group. The results of this study revealedthat explicit pronunciation training is more advantageous for B1 level students than the implicit one dueto various reasons.