Bottom’s up for listening

Abstract

This report explains the teaching decisions made in Kissling (2018). The original study measured the effect of explicit pronunciation instruction (PI) on the listening comprehension of beginning L2 Spanish learners (n = 116), as measured via accuracy on a dictation task (intelligibility) and ratings of perceived difficulty (comprehension). Learners either received PI that focused on segmentals or PI that focused on suprasegmentals, followed by practice either producing or perceiving those same sounds. The original article reported that all groups, including a control group, improved over time, but the suprasegmental PI followed by perception-focused practice had the largest effect on intelligibility, whereas the segmental PI followed by production-focused practice had the largest effect on comprehensibility, suggesting that all instructional approaches have value. The current report explains in greater detail the teaching decisions made in Kissling (2018), including the classes recruited, materials development, and PI presentation.