WAYS TO ASSESS PRONUNCIATION

LEARNING

The teacher should use evaluation techniques:

● offer the learners the greatest opportunity of feedback on their performance;

● are more familiar with the learners so their performance will reflect their true
placement in the area; and
● consider listening discrimination skills since these are integral to developing
intelligible oral production and thus is a part of the overall evaluation of
pronunciation.

The evaluation mentioned here is grouped into pre-program -assessment (done

before the start of the programs); during the program (done while the program is
being implemented) and post-program assessment (done after the program has been
completed). Other formal types of oral assessment are also covered here.

Pre-program. Assessments before a program are also called diagnostic evaluation of

pronunciation and these determine a learner’s level of proficiency usually for the
purpose of screening (determining whether the learner can perform a certain task) or
placement (deciding on suitable class level given the learner’s level of language
proficiency). Another evaluation is the diagnostic perception for listening
discrimination which tests the learner’s ability to determine both segmental and
suprasegmental features.

This can be done in a number of ways.

1. Consonant-vowel discrimination. In order to determine the learner’s ability to

distinguish vowel and consonant sounds, the teacher can use minimal-pair
discrimination exercises.
2. Word stress. Recognition of English word stress and patterns can be tested by
asking learners to choose the correct stress pattern for words or sentences in a
text or dialogue that is recorded or read aloud by the teacher.
3. Testing formats that diagnose a learner’s abilities to perceive the most prominent
element can resemble those used for word stress.
4. Testing the learner’s discrimination of intonation patterns, two types of tests may
be used. First, the learner is asked to determine whether the utterance has rising
or rising-falling intonation. This format can easily be adapted to other
 grammatical forms that are differentiated by means of rising or falling intonation.
More advanced learners could be asked to identify – in a multiple-choice format –
the intonation contours of utterances.
5. Reduced speech. For testing learner’s comprehension of reduced speech, a
cloze passage may be used in which commonly reduced and unstressed words
have been deleted. Students then provide the missing words as they listen to the
taped passage or dialogue.

During program assessment. It is best to obtain two types of production samples at

the outset of instructions: a) a standardized sample of the learner reading out loud and
b) a sample of the learner’s free speech. The two samples complement each other in
confirming the extent to which the learners require instruction in a particular area of
spoken production. In eliciting these two types of samples, the teacher often uses a
written text known as a diagnostic passage to assess the student’s command of
pronunciation features that might not necessarily occur in a natural speech context.
Diagnostic passages used are suggested to contain all or most of the segmental and
suprasegmental features of English so that the learner’s command of these features
can be accurately assessed and the teacher can determine where to focus instruction.

Since reading aloud does not provide the most natural evidence of a speaker’s
pronunciation, it is essential to obtain a more spontaneous sample of spoken English –
free speech – which focuses mainly on meaning rather than form. In order to obtain a
sample for free speech, the teacher can ask the student to speak for one or two minutes
about a familiar topic such as their family, their hometown, a favorite childhood memory,
etc.. Of primary importance in selecting the topic is the learner should be at ease with it.

Done during the lesson, the ongoing evaluation and feedback serve to 1) determine
the student’s progress and 2) determine areas for individualized instruction. This may
take the form of self-monitoring and correction, peer feedback, and teacher
correction.

Self-monitoring and correction. Although others argue that learners do not have the
ability for self-monitoring and self-correction, the principles of self-directed learning
underscore this evaluation strategy. In self-directed learning, students should define
their own learning objectives, control their learning activities, select their techniques and
methodologies based on their preferences, control aspects of how they learn and have
a voice in their evaluation and progress.
Peer Feedback. This fosters interaction inside the classroom and students are tasked
to be monitors and givers of feedback. This sharpens listening skills and puts their
knowledge on pronunciation immediately. This can be done in groups or in pairs.
Perform in class and discuss these

Teacher Feedback and Correction. Teachers are encouraged to keep a tally of their
student’s errors as they perform and discuss these observations later after the
performance. The general rule is to call attention to errors as unobtrusively as possible,
giving the learners every opportunity to apply the rules as they monitor their own
learning.

Post Program. The scope of classroom testing is much narrower than the diagnostic
test since it focuses on a specific area covered in class. In general, pronunciation tests
are best done in the speaking booths.

. Several formal oral proficiency tests exist in the market today. Among them are:

● The Test of Spoke English (TSE) designed by the Educational Testing Service
(ETS) and administered overseas and in the same manner as the Test of English
as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). It is a semi-direct measure in which examinees
provide verbal responses to recorded and written prompts in a language
laboratory setting. Tasks include reading aloud, describing a picture, telling a
story from a series of pictures, sentence completion, presenting a schedule or a
syllabus, and either expressing one’s opinion on controversial topics or
describing a familiar object.
● Another test of oral proficiency that measures pronunciation is the Interagency
Language Roundtable Oral Proficiency Interview (ILR), formerly referred to as
the Foreign Service Oral Interview (FSI). This 30-minute test is conducted by two
trained interviewers, one of whom conducts the interview while the other one
observes and takes note of the examinee’s performance. It consists of four parts:
the warm-up (to put the examinee at ease), the level check (to find the
examinee’s level of performance), the probe (to discover the upper limits of the
performance and where it begins to break down), and the wind-down (to return
the examinee to a comfortable level of performance before closing).
Pronunciation and fluency are two of the components for which the interviewer
gives holistic ratings on a scale of 0 to 5 points. The ILR was originally designed
for government use but has been adopted by the American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and ETS for use in the academic
setting.