Читать книгу Second Language Pronunciation - Группа авторов - Страница 15

Fluency, or the degree to which speakers can talk without pauses, self-repairs, and other disruptive elements, is included in our definition of what pronunciation entails, and it clearly has an impact on comprehensibility. One activity often found in general speaking classes, but which can also contribute to pronunciation, is the debate. El Majidi et al. (2018) undertook a small study in which they introduced debates into language classes. They interviewed the students afterward and asked them to reflect on how their own speech had changed. The students indicated that they had a much better sense of how to pronounce new vocabulary. In a follow-up study, the same authors (El Majidi et al. 2021) examined the effects of an intervention employing debates compared to a control group, and found many significant improvements in the experimental group. Although they did not examine pronunciation of segments and suprasegmentals, they did measure fluency, which was significantly enhanced by debate; we know from other research that improvements in fluency in slow talkers result in an increase in comprehensibility (Munro & Derwing, 1998). The learners read about their topic, prepared their position in writing, and then prepared their speaking points.