Urdu EFL Students’ Pronunciation, Awareness, and Instruction in Pakistan

Abstract

This study probed into the speech of 40 Urdu EFL learners in a 16 weeks listening/speaking course, exploring the relationship between students’ pronunciation improvement and their pronunciation awareness, examined through learners’ conceptions of learning. The course focused segmental and supra-segmental aspects, including connected speech processes, intonation, and fluency. Students wrote weekly articles eliciting measures of pronunciation awareness and completed read‐aloud and picture description tasks at the beginning and end of the course. Speech analysis was made through seven measures, including fluency and segmental and supra-segmental accuracy. Results displayed significant improvements in students’ segmental production, enchainment, and some aspects of intonation and fluency. Several variables were associated with pronunciation awareness measures. Results have been discussed in the light of L2 pronunciation improvement and instruction awareness links.