No, they won’t ‘just sound like each other’: NNS-NNS Negotiated Interaction and Attention to Phonological Form on Targeted L2 Pronunciation Tasks

Can two non-native speakers (NNSs) work together to improve their L2 pronunciation? This book explores this question by extending task-based learning research into the field of L2 phonology/pronunciation. Three university-level L2 English pronunciation classes performed a two-way, interactive map task balancing communicative value and form essentialness in order to maximize the need to negotiate the target form. Analysis sought to identify processes by which NNSs drew each other’s attention to the targeted phoneme through corrective feedback, modified production and other strategies. The influence of task design was also explored. Participants’ ability to push each other toward more targetlike control - rather than appropriating each others’ non-targetlike productions - provided evidence of steps in adult learners’ L2 phonological development, and hold implications for the use of a task-based approach to teaching pronunciation in the L2 classroom.