A holistic multimodal approach to the pronunciation training of young learners of English - an attempt at verification
A holistic multimodal approach to the pronunciation training of young learners of English - an attempt at verification

Summary/Abstract: In her book, Szpyra-Kozłowska (2015) argues for a holistic multimodal approach to EFL pronunciation instruction and claims that, in order to be effective, teaching pronunciation to foreign learners should be organized in such a way as to cater for different learning styles by combining elements of auditory, articulatory, cognitive and multisensory training. She concentrates more on older and slightly more advanced learners and provides no empirical evidence to show that this proposal is in fact superior to the traditional ‘listen-and-repeat’ procedure, commonly employed in the ELT classroom as the major pronunciation training technique. The present study attempts to verify the validity of the approach. It is a report on an experiment, carried out with 34 Polish learners of English at the ages between 7 and 9, representing the (pre)elementary level of general proficiency, who, during fourteen classes in the summer of 2014 and 2015, were taught selected aspects of English pronunciation (the interdental fricatives, the palatoalveolars, inflectional endings, some contracted negatives) via the adopted holistic multimodal approach, but retaining also the ‘listen-and-repeat’ procedure due to its familiarity to students. The study aimed at answering the following research questions: • Which procedure, i.e. a ‘listen-and-repeat’ approach or a holistic multimodal training brings better improvement in learners’ pronunciation?• Do the obtained results depend on the integration of the techniques applied into regular course activities? (trainers’ views) • How do learners evaluate the holistic multimodal training? (learners’ views)

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