An examination of the accuracy and intelligibility of consonant production by English language learners

English language learners (ELLs) may find that their accents can obscure communication in English. As a result of this potential communication barrier, pronunciation classes are often offered by different community resources to promote improved English pronunciation. While the existing literature regarding ELL pronunciation instruction has investigated the effects of instruction using either a quantitative analysis of production accuracy or a qualitative assessment of ELLs’ intelligibility, the present study advances the field by employing a mixed-methods approach to investigate the effects of instruction on both production accuracy and intelligibility of ELLs. Twenty-eight ELLs were recruited from two different oral communication courses at a community college. Their speech samples were collected at three different instructional intervals: prior to instruction, upon course completion, and six weeks after course completion. These speech samples were analyzed for production accuracy of word-initial and word-final consonants across the instructional intervals and between the two instructional cohorts, one that focused on explicit pronunciation instruction and the other on fluency-building communicative instruction. The quantitative analyses revealed that the production accuracy of the two cohorts improved from the pre-instructional to the initial post-instructional interval; however, their accuracy destabilized at the delayed post-instructional interval. Another finding was uncovered; the participants’ intelligibility as evaluated by native and non-native English speaking raters steadily improved from the pre-instructional interval to the delayed post-instructional interval. The qualitative results revealed that six participant case studies exhibited differences in their metalinguistic awareness from pre- to post-instructional intervals which appeared to be influenced by the instructional cohort in which they were enrolled. The study also discusses how English exposure both in and outside of the classroom conditioned participants’ intelligibility and confidence in English.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Elizabeth Conwa