Pronunciation-specific adjustment strategies for intelligibility in L2 teacher talk: Results and implications of a questionnaire study

A questionnaire study was conducted to examine how 120 highly experienced EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers in Japan adjust their pronunciation in order to facilitate and refine their students' learning skills to approach mutual intelligibility in second language (L2) classrooms (i.e. pronunciation-specific teacher talk). The results of this questionnaire study exhibits that the majority of these teachers reported their conscious and/or intuitive efforts to make classroom input comprehensible to their students via phonological input modification. Then, by coding the questionnaire results, 12 pronunciation-specific adjustment strategies (e.g. speech rate and fluency modification, assimilation and liaison avoidance) were identified, and their frequency among the teachers was measured (e.g. they are likely to enunciate their speech, especially at a lexical level). These findings will not only aid and inform teachers on scaffolding and how to boost mutual intelligibility in L2 classrooms but will also assist to advocate and increase learners' awareness of the essential importance of acquiring accuracy in L2 pronunciation.