Article published In: Journal of Second Language Pronunciation
Vol. 9:3 (2023) ► pp.340–349
A pedagogical note on teaching L2 prosody and speech sounds using hand gestures
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Pompeu Fabra University.
Published online: 11 January 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.23043.li
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.23043.li
Abstract
This paper reports the pedagogical decisions in Li, P., Baills, F., Baqué, L., & Prieto, P. (2023). The
effectiveness of embodied prosodic training in L2 accentedness and vowel accuracy. Second
Language
Research, 39(4), 1077–1105. “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, P., Baills, F., Baqué, L., & Prieto, P. (2023). The
effectiveness of embodied prosodic training in L2 accentedness and vowel accuracy. Second
Language
Research, 39(4), 1077–1105. .
Keywords: Prosodic training, vowel, hand gesture, accentedness, second language, pedagogy
Article outline
- Background
- Li et al.’s (2023) study: Central pedagogical approach and methods
- Participants and settings
- Materials
- Overall teaching plan
- Conclusion and practical recommendations for teachers
References
References (14)
Baills, F., Alazard-Guiu, C., & Prieto, P. (2022). Embodied
prosodic training enhances L2 read speech pronunciation. Applied
Linguistics, 43(4), 766–804.
Baills, F., Suárez-González, N., González-Fuente, S., & Prieto, P. (2019). Observing
and producing pitch gestures facilitates the learning of Mandarin Chinese tones and
words. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 41(1), 33–58.
Billières, M. (2002). Le
corps en phonétique corrective. In R. Renard (Ed.), Apprentissage
d’une Langue Étrangère/Seconde Vol.2 La Phonétique
Verbo-tonale (pp. 38–70). De Boeck Université.
Gluhareva, D., & Prieto, P. (2017). Training
with rhythmic beat gestures benefits L2 pronunciation in discourse-demanding
situations. Language Teaching
Research, 21(5), 609–631.
Hay, J. F., Sato, M., Coren, A. E., Moran, C. L., & Diehl, R. L. (2006). Enhanced
contrast for vowels in utterance focus: A cross-language study. The Journal of the Acoustical
Society of
America, 119(5), 3022–3033.
Li, P., Baills, F., Baqué, L., & Prieto, P. (2023). The
effectiveness of embodied prosodic training in L2 accentedness and vowel accuracy. Second
Language
Research, 39(4), 1077–1105.
Li, P., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2020). Observing
and producing durational hand gestures facilitates the pronunciation of novel vowel-length
contrasts. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 42(5), 1015–1039.
Li, P., Xi, X., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2021). Training
non-native aspirated plosives with hand gestures: Learners’ gesture performance
matters. Language, Cognition and
Neuroscience, 36(10), 1313–1328.
Ozakin, A. S., Xi, X., Li, P., & Prieto, P. (2023). Thanks
or tanks: Training with tactile cues improves learners’ accuracy of English interdental consonants in an oral reading
task. Language Learning and
Development, 19(4), 404–419.
Xi, X., Li, P., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2020). Hand
gestures facilitate the acquisition of novel phonemic contrasts when they appropriately mimic target phonetic
features. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing
Research, 63(11), 3571–3585.
Xi, X., Li, P., & Prieto, P. (2023). Reducing
acoustic overlap of L2 English vowels through gestures encoding lip
aperture. In A. Kirkova-Naskova & A. Henderson (Eds.), Proceedings
of the 7th International Conference on English Pronunciation: Issues and
Practices (pp. 261–270). Université Grenoble-Alpes.
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Carrascal Tris, Diana & Qianting Yuan
Ding, Hongwei, Jing Zhang, Hao Zhang, Fei Chen & Yang Zhang
Hori, Tomoko, Mari Akatsuka & Michiko Toyama
2025. Effects of observing pitch gestures on the perception of English
intonation by Japanese learners of English. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 11:1 ► pp. 26 ff.
Chen, Meiyun
Skarnitzl, Radek & Tomáš Bořil
2024. Training of English prosody with acoustically modified voices. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 10:3 ► pp. 375 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.