Abstract:
Listening has been a neglected skill in both second language research and teaching
practice (Khaghaninejad & Maleki, 2015; Nowrouzi, Tam, Zareian & Nimehchisalem,
2015) and recent research has shown that second language (L2) listening difficulties might relate to phonological problems besides syntactic and lexical knowledge (e.g., Suristro, 2018). There have been some empirical studies examining the effects of phonetic instruction on perceptual skills showing promising results (e.g., Aliaga-Garcia & Mora, 2009; Linebaugh & Roche, 2013). This study contributes to this area with a focus on
investigating the impacts of English pronunciation instruction on listening skills among
Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, targeting the four English
phonemes: word-final stop consonants /t/-/d/, the lax high front vowel /ɪ/ and the tense high front vowel /i/. Particularly, it examines whether pronunciation instruction would have
effects on (a) students’ abilities to listen to and distinguish target phonemes, and (b)
students’ abilities to listen to and dictate monosyllabic words containing the target sounds.
To examine the effects of mere explicit pronunciation instruction on perception, the study
excluded perceptual training from the treatment. Sixteen Vietnamese learners were
recruited to join the study, divided into two groups: an experimental group (n=10) and a
control group (n=6). Only the experimental group received a five-hour online phonetic
instruction emphasizing the four English target phonemes and other distractors. A pre-test
and a post-test in listening skills measured the difference between and within groups. In
addition, a post-instructional survey was administered to collect qualitative data in an
attempt to explain the study results. Non-parametric tests (Wilcoxon rank sum and
Wilcoxon signed rank tests) were used to analyze the quantitative data. The study results
revealed that there was no difference in listening performance between the two groups, and within each group, which might suggest unclear impact of pronunciation instruction on
