Resumen de The Effectiveness of Video-Based Shadowing and Tracking Pronunciation Exercises for Foreign Language Learners
Robert Martinsen, Cherice Montgomery, Véronique Willardson
This exploratory classroom study investigated the effects of two video-assisted pronunciation interventions on the French pronunciation of 12 males and 7 females (n = 19) enrolled in a fourth-year high school French class. Interventions occurred three times per week over a semester and required participants to repeat what they heard while watching subtitled, cultural videos in French—both during class and in self-directed computer-lab exercises. Researchers assessed the improvement in pronunciation performance using pre- and posttests consisting of both read-aloud and oral free response tasks. Statistically significant improvements were observed on both tasks, with the most striking on the read-aloud task. Participants’ perceptions of interventions were also examined using both qualitative and quantitative surveys, which indicated that students appreciated the authenticity and learning autonomy of the self-directed exercises. Findings suggest that distributed practice through culturally contextualized, video-based interventions may offer an engaging way to incorporate explicit pronunciation instruction into the high school classroom
