A pedagogical note on teaching L2 prosody and speech sounds using hand gestures

Abstract

This paper reports the pedagogical decisions in Li et al. (2023) “The effectiveness of embodied prosodic training in L2 accentedness and vowel accuracy” published in Second Language Research. The study revealed that embodied prosodic training improved the overall pronunciation skills of Catalan-speaking learners of French and the pronunciation accuracy of front rounded vowels more than training without hand gestures. Three main pedagogical innovations were key in obtaining the positive results. First, the hand gestures performed by the instructor closely mimicked the prosodic structure (i.e., the melodic and rhythmic features) of the target sentences. Second, the sentences used for training were embedded in meaningful communicative dialogues. Third, the challenging L2 sounds were embedded in multiple occasions and in various prosodic positions. Therefore, in the hope of encouraging L2 teachers to incorporate such techniques in teaching practice, we provide a full description of the materials and procedures in Li et al. (2023).