Using Explicit Pronunciation Instructions to Develop Students’ English Speaking Competencies: A Quasi-Experimental Study (Published)
This article aims to find out the effect of explicit pronunciation instructions of English on developing students’ speaking skills and attitudes towards the offered pronunciation training. A quasi-experimental design was employed to conduct the current study with pre and post-tests. Sixty university students were involved in the study and those participants were subjected to a treatment for 14 weeks of instruction on English pronunciation. Data were collected using speaking tests, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analysed and mean values, standard deviations and paired sample t-tests results were obtained to answer the pertinent questions of the research. The findings reveal that the method of explicit pronunciation instruction is an effective one in improving the students’ speaking skill as well as their attitudes towards the pronunciation training in particular and the learning of the target language as a whole. Finally, some pedagogical implications are presented to address a few crucial issues for teachers to be taken into their considerations for better teaching practices within the Yemeni EFL context
Keywords: Attitudes, Explicit Instruction, Pronunciation, Speaking Competence