Voice and Mirroring in L2 Pronunciation Instruction

Voice and Mirroring in L2 Pronunciation Instruction emphasizes the importance of sociolinguistic context in second language acquisition and pronunciation teaching. It advocates for a top-down approach that begins with social context and highlights the Mirroring Project as an effective approach that incorporates social factors into pronunciation instruction. The book is intended for language teachers, academic researchers, language teacher educators, curriculum developers, and textbook writers.

Format: Hardback
Publication date: 16 January 2023
Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd

Voice and Mirroring in L2 Pronunciation Instruction presents an approach to teaching pronunciation that aims to help learners internalize the "voices" (complexes of linguistic and non-linguistic features that embody particular speakers' emotions, social stance, and group identification) of proficient speakers of the second language (L2). The authors begin by reviewing "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches to second language acquisition (SLA) research and pronunciation teaching, presenting previously published and new findings in interlanguage phonology and variationist approaches to SLA that demonstrate the powerful impact of sociolinguistic context on L2 pronunciation.

Based on this review, the authors argue that a top-down approach, which begins with social context, is preferable in both research and teaching of L2 pronunciation. They highlight the Mirroring Project as one such approach that includes social factors impacting L2 pronunciation, such as interlocutor, empathy, and nonverbal elements. The authors demonstrate how this project can help language learners modify their L2 pronunciation patterns and improve their intelligibility by internalizing and channeling the voices of speakers they have selected as models.

The audience for the volume includes language teachers, particularly those desiring to use top-down pedagogical approaches like the Mirroring Project to improve learners' intelligibility, and academic researchers interested in studying the way.

The book is also of potential interest to language teacher educators who are interested in exploring innovative approaches to pronunciation teaching and learning.

Weight: 3116g
Dimension: 234 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800502772