At an IATEFL International Conference in Harrogate a few years ago, there was an undeniable buzz of excitement among members of the Pronunciation Special Interest Group. Pronunciation was about to leap into the 21st century—'listen and repeat' was deemed obsolete.
Not only because it was considered boring (as we were told), but primarily because it failed to recognize that with pronunciation, there can be significant differences between what a fully competent speaker perceives when a word or phrase is spoken and the perception that the learner has of the same word or phrase. It’s the same acoustic signal, but two different perceptions. Sounds impossible, but it happens all the time.
The excitement at Harrogate was infectious, and much of me agreed with the need to move on. The limitations of the "blind imitative drills" advocated in the 1950s (Crowell Trager & Henderson, 1956: iii) were apparent to anyone drawn to the Communicative Approach in the 1980s. I had long stopped viewing learners’ mother tongues as obstacles to their pronunciation, which made me uncomfortable with the voices of behaviorism from the 60s that championed repetitive drills, stating that:
"The main problem of English pronunciation is to build a new set of boxes corresponding to the sounds of English, and to break down the arrangement of boxes which the habits of our native language have so strongly built up. Unfortunately, it is never easy to establish good habits; it is always the bad ones that come most naturally" (O’Connor, 1967: 3).
So yes, 'listen and repeat' needed rethinking. But did it need to be abandoned altogether? “I’m not entirely sure,” said Mark Hancock.
“We certainly need to ensure that what our learners perceive is what we’re perceiving as expert speakers. Imitative drill can’t start before that, and it can’t be blind. But there still seems to be a place for repetition. How else do you form an automatic habit?”
Mark’s comment made me reflect. The year before, at the IATEFL annual conference in Liverpool, I had given a talk on using technology for teaching pronunciation. Preparing the talk led me to the field of skills acquisition—an area more often associated with sports or music than with second language learning. However, due to the psychomotor component of pronunciation, we can draw lessons from how athletes and musicians acquire and perfect the complex skills needed for their performances.
One common model of skills acquisition, applied here to pronunciation, involves three stages:
- Cognitive Stage: The learner receives explicit information or instructions about the target feature, with a clear model to follow. In this stage, production is slow, conscious, deliberate, and requires full attention.
- Associative Stage: Here, learners begin converting what they know into what they can do. This stage requires abundant repetition of the target feature within a narrow context. Games, tongue-twisters, and drills can provide this repetition.
- Autonomous Stage: At this stage, the production of the target feature becomes increasingly automated. With pronunciation, speakers no longer need to consciously focus on the physical articulation of sounds.
What does this mean for habit formation and pronunciation? For me, the key lies in what teachers do during the cognitive stage and what learners do for themselves at the associative stage.
For example, I recall being told that my pronunciation of /t/ and /d/ in Spanish was incorrect. With careful guidance from a colleague about tongue positioning, I was eventually able to imitate the Spanish, dental /t/ and /d/. However, without constant attention, I would slip back into the bad habits of my English alveolar /t/.
What made the difference? Abundant repetition of the target feature within a narrow context. I decorated the fridge door with Spanish words containing /t/ and /d/, ensuring dental articulation every time I visited the fridge. I also kept word lists in my car for practice at traffic lights. This was the associative stage, and it was essential for developing the habit.
The autonomous stage arrives unnoticed, much like driving a car without realizing how often you’ve shifted gears. The good habit has been formed, and pronunciation is automatic.
Where does this leave us?
- 'Listen and repeat' isn’t dead but has evolved.
- The cognitive stage requires clear guidance to ensure learners perceive language as target speakers do.
- Repetition during the associative stage doesn’t have to be communicative but should focus on form.
- Practice makes improvement, not perfection—but it’s key to automation.
References
Crowell Trager, E. and Cook Henderson, S. (1956). Pronunciation Drills for Language Learners. Rockville: English Language Services.
O’Connor, J.D. (1967). Better Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
