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Part of
English Pronunciation Instruction: Research-based insights
Edited by Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova, Alice Henderson and Jonás Fouz-González
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 19] 2021
► pp. 39–59

Chapter 3
When a psycholinguist enters the multilingual classroom

Bridging the gap between psycholinguistics and pronunciation teaching

| University of Salzburg

There is a general agreement that teachers experience challenges when it comes to dealing with learners who already use two languages daily (Angelovska, 2019). Several learner individual differences could influence the outcomes in pronunciation learning and teaching, e.g., the three (or more) sound systems, the potential sources for transfer, or the transfer type and direction to name but a few.

This chapter aims to bridge the gap between research and practice by informing the practice of pronunciation teaching. First, some of the psycholinguistic accounts of L3/Ln pronunciation acquisition are described. Then, a discussion follows about what research evidence we have and that which we lack for L3/Ln pronunciation teaching. Finally, possible implications for teaching in multilingual classrooms are proposed.

Keywords: L3 pronunciation, evidence-based teaching, pronunciation teaching, psycholinguistics, multilingualism, classroom
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The multilingual classroom
  • Differences between L2 and L3 learners in pronunciation acquisition
  • Psycholinguistic accounts of L3/Ln pronunciation acquisition
  • Teaching L3/Ln pronunciation: Extensions and challenges
  • Pedagogical recommendations for L3/Ln pronunciation
  • Calls for action
    • Calls for teachers
      • Acknowledge linguistically diverse classrooms
      • Address phonetic similarity which could trigger transfer in L3/Ln pronunciation acquisition
    • Calls for researchers
      • Consider the diversity of learner profiles
      • Consider the type of measures used to investigate L3/Ln perception and production
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.19.03ang
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