“I understood you, but there was this pronunciation thing…”: L2 pronunciation feedback in English/French tandem interactions (avec Céline Horgues)
Résumé
The role of corrective feedback (CF) in L2 development has been the topic of much discussion in SLA literature (see e.g. Sheen and Ellis 2011 for a recent overview). Researchers have focused their attention on CF provided either by language teachers or by fellow L2 learners, whereas relatively little is known about phonetic feedback offered in a non-institutional setting during peer-to-peer native/non-native interactions as is the case with tandem language learning. Tandem language exchanges represent an original learning environment, as each participant takes turns being the native and the non-native side of the dialogue. Thus, in contrast to the typical L2 learning setting, the hierarchical structure between the participants is fluid: the expert-novice power relationship evolves as the conversation switches from one language to the other.
In order to see how the distinguishing characteristics of tandem learning (such as solidarity and reciprocity) shape the process of L2 phonetic development in their own special ways, we collected an English-French Tandem corpus as part of the SITAF project, launched at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 in October 2012. We gathered linguistic data – both video and audio recorded – from face-to-face conversational exchanges held by 21 pairs of undergraduate students, with each ‘tandem’ consisting of a native speaker of English and a native speaker of French. The dialogues and reading passages were recorded on two occasions separated by a 3-month interval.
The present paper will offer a preliminary analysis of L2 pronunciation feedback on several renditions of the same text, given to the French speakers by their English tandem partners. The passage was produced by each French participant 3 times: (1) during the ‘monitored’ reading, which was supervised by the English-speaking partner and which led to (2) the ‘improved reading’ in the course of the 1st recording session, and then (3) the ‘final reading’ performed 3 months later.
The data will allow us to address different questions relating to the study of corrective feedback, such as:
- What is corrected by the native-speaking partner? Segmental or prosodic errors? Phonemic or allophonic deviations?
- When does the correction take place?
- What is the corrective strategy adopted by the NS? Is it explicit correction, recast, or elicitation?
- How do body gestures supplement the corrective audio input?
- What is the learner’s uptake after receiving feedback?
We hope that our data brings a valuable and fairly unique contribution to SLA research. Establishing which errors get corrected and how may have implications for setting priorities in L2 pronunciation teaching.
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