Date of Graduation

Spring 5-18-2023

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

College/School

School of Education

Department/Program

Teaching English as a Second Language

First Advisor

Luz Navarrette García, MA, MS, EdD

Abstract

The rapid growth of the native Russian-speaking population in the United States created an urgent need to improve their pronunciation skills and increase their second language speech intelligibility. The purpose of this field project was to present a research-based curriculum, with the use of embedded technology, that can be utilized to improve the American English pronunciation skills and intelligibility of native Russian speakers.

The body of analyzed scholarship demonstrated that speech intelligibility is the primary goal of second language pronunciation teaching, justified the importance of research-based pronunciation teaching, emphasized the significant role of technology in pronunciation research and teaching, and revealed the lack and need for resources teaching American English pronunciation to native Russian speakers. The Affective Filter Hypothesis, one of five hypotheses that form Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition, is used as the theoretical framework for this field project.

The designed field project English Pronunciation with ZOYA is an eLearning Platform grounded on a research-based curriculum tailored according to the related in-depth literature review and personal teaching experience to improve American English pronunciation skills and intelligibility of adult native Russian-speaking learners. The eLearning Platform is available at englishpronunciationwithzoya.tilda.ws. The Platform is designed as a user-friendly website with an easy-to-navigate module structure course curriculum creating a safe self-paced learning environment for pronunciation teaching and learning. The developed curriculum is recommended for adult intermediate to advanced proficiency level (B1 - C2, CEFR) native Russian-speaking learners, their instructors, and curriculum developers interested in improving pronunciation skills and intelligibility of native Russian-speaking learners.

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