Call for papers

How can language pronunciation be taught effectively today and in the future?

The aim of the workshop is to take stock of the methods used to teach pronunciation. For example, papers could be organised around the following themes:

1) How is pronunciation taught in the classroom?

1.     What practical implementations are practised, observed and evaluated at school?
2.    What importance is given to repetition in language courses, which is central in so‑called structural methods (Duff, 2000), and then secondary in communicative methods?
   
3.     Is HVPT (High Variability Pronunciation Training, Thomson, 2018) known and used?
4.    What is happening to language laboratories (Abou Haidar, 2022)?
5.     What are the contributions of speech recognition, text-to-speech (Evers & Chen, 2022), acoustic (Ferragne et al., 2024), embodied (Rouaud et al., 2024), articulatory and gestural (Amand & Touhami, 2024; Exare & Vaissière, 2023) approaches to improving phonetic and phonological skills in LVE?
6.     What are the contributions of online learning resources? What is the value of informal learning mediated by video games, enhanced by i) free institutional applications (Captain Kelly), ii) paying applications supported by AI (Aimigo, 2004), or reinforced by private coaching systems (Nicholson, 2023)?

2) How do the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching pronunciation fit together (Capliez, 2015)?

1.     Why is it important to teach pronunciation (Spence et al, 2022; Rubin, 1992)?
2.    Why is it difficult to teach pronunciation?
3.     What are the practical obstacles to measuring the effectiveness of a pronunciation teaching system (Levis, 2023)? How can they be overcome?
4.     Are incubation projects proving their worth (Exare & Vaissière, 2023; Rouaud et al., 2022; Edensor Costille, 2023)?
5.    Is the verbo-tonal method used for languages other than French as a foreign language? What adaptations and improvements have been made since the work of P. Guberina (Renard, 1971; Billières, 2005)?
6.     Can multimodal corpora be used for research into the teaching of pronunciation (Beaupoil-Hourdel & Daniel, 2025)?
7.    On the basis of what empirical evidence or observations is the initial and in-service training offered to specialist (MEEF 2nd degré) (Capliez & Guendouz, 2021) and non-specialist (MEEF 1er degré) LVE teachers (Herry-Bénit, 2008; Voise, 2010)?

We encourage contributions addressing one or more of these themes.

Our aim is to bring together participants from a wide range of backgrounds:

1.  teachers and teacher-researchers in higher education,
2.  teacher trainers,
3.  school teachers, 
4.  speech therapists and independent researchers etc.

Papers may cover :

1.     a variety of languages (German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Arabic, Occitan, Breton, English, French, etc.),
2.  a variety of audiences (age, type of schooling and level of proficiency in the foreign language, etc.),
3.  historical analyses, comparing the development of methods over time,
4.  prospective analyses, anticipating future developments.

At the end of the workshop, a selection of papers may be compiled in the form of a publication.

The workshop will take place in hybrid mode, allowing participants to present their papers either face-to-face or remotely.

We look forward to receiving contributions from colleagues both near and far.

Some references

Abou Haidar, L. (2021). « L'oral à l'ère du numérique : enseigner et apprendre autrement ? », Alsic 24(2).

Aimigo, R. E. (2004). Gymglish. Part of Aimigo. Cours de langue en ligne. https://www.gymglish.com/fr

Amand, M., & Touhami, Z. (2024). Could You Say [læp˺ tɒp˺]? Acquisition of Unreleased Stops by Advanced French Learners of English Using Spectrograms and Gestures. Languages, 9(8), Article 8.

Billières, M. (2005). Les pratiques du verbo-tonal. Retour aux sources. Linguistique de la parole et apprentissage des langues. Questions autour de la méthode verbo-tonale de P. Guberina, 67-87.

Capliez, M. (2015). Aperçu de l’enseignement de l’anglais oral en France: Statut, perspectives et étude de cas. Recherches en didactiques, 19(1), 109–128.

Capliez, M., & Guendouz, P. (2021). Apprendre et enseigner l’anglais oral. 1–176.

Captain Kelly. (2021). Captain Kelly (Version 1.0) [Application mobile]. Récupéré de https://captain-kelly.education

Delattre, P. (1960). Sommes-nous préparés pour l’enseignement de la langue? The French Review, 33(5), 483–490.

Ferragne, E., Guyot Talbot, A., Navarro, S., & Sanvicente, F. (2024, décembre). Retour d’expérience sur le projet Solutions pour l’Enseignement de la Phonétique Appliquée aux Langues Étrangères (SEPALE). La Clé des Langues. ENS de Lyon/DGESCO.

Edensor Costille, K. (2023). Englishville: A new way of practising prosody. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on English Pronunciation: Issues and Practices (pp. 61-69).

Kirkova-Naskova, A. (2019). Second language pronunciation: A summary of teaching techniques. Journal for Foreign Languages, 11(1), 119-136.

Duff, P., A. (2000). Repetition in foreign language classroom. In J. K. Hall & L. S. Verplaetse, Second and Foreign Language Learning Through Classroom Interaction (pp. 109–138). Routledge.

Evers, K., & Chen, S. (2022). Effects of an automatic speech recognition system with peer feedback on pronunciation instruction for adults. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 35(8), 1869–1889.

Exare, C., & Vaissière, J. (2023). Comment favoriser l’apprentissage des sons de l’anglais par de jeunes locuteurs non natifs? Espaces Linguistiques.

Herry-Bénit, N. (2008). Apprendre à parler l’anglais à l’école primaire: Récit d’une expérience. TIPA. Travaux interdisciplinaires sur la parole et le langage, 27, 75–91.

Levis, J. (2023). The effectiveness of pronunciation instruction: Unanswered questions. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 9(2), 161–166.

Nicholson, L. (2023). Luke Nicholson. Improve Your Accent. https://improveyouraccent.co.uk/about/

Pourhosein Gilakjani, A., & Sabouri, N. (2016). Why Is English Pronunciation Ignored by EFL Teachers in Their Classes? International Journal of English Linguistics, 6, 195.

Renard, R. (1971). Introduction à la méthode verbo-tonale de correction
phonétique. Paris : Didier.

Rouaud, J., Huet, N., & Przewozny-Desriaux, A. (2022). Assessing Spoken English Performance and Self-Efficacy Beliefs in the Classroom: Some Considerations on the Value of an Interdisciplinary Embodied Methodology for French Learners of English. Recherches Anglaises et Nord Americaines, 55.

Rouaud, J., Huet,, N., Przewozny-Desriaux, A., Baron, C., Barou, M. (2024). Efficacité d'une méthode de phonologie incarnée pour des apprenants au collège : Le projet PAC-PICL!, La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), décembre 2024.

Rubin, D. L. (1992). Nonlanguage Factors Affecting Undergraduates’ Judgments of Nonnative English-Speaking Teaching Assistants. Research in Higher Education, 33(4), 511–531.

Spence, J. L., Hornsey, M. J., Stephenson, E. M., & Imuta, K. (2022). Is Your Accent Right for the Job? A Meta-Analysis on Accent Bias in Hiring Decisions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50(3), 371-386.

Thomson, R. I. (2018). High Variability [Pronunciation] Training (HVPT): A proven technique about which every language teacher and learner ought to know. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 4(2), 208–231.

Voise, A.-M. (2010). Enseigner la phonologie de l’anglais aux futurs professeurs du primaire. Recherche et pratiques pédagogiques en langues de spécialité. Cahiers de l’Apliut, Vol. XXIX N° 2, Article Vol. XXIX N° 2.