Pronunciation and Podcasts: A Study With French Foreign Language Learners

Abstract

Until the 90s, the teaching of pronunciation in language classrooms had been disregarded. Today, although the importance of pronunciation has been recognized, teachers still have difficulties in finding appropriate teaching materials and dedicating classroom time needed for teaching pronunciation. The purpose of the study was to propose podcasts to teachers looking for ways to fill these gaps. With 15 Turkish learners of French as a foreign language, we studied the pronunciation with the podcasts for 6 weeks. According to the results obtained in pretest and posttest, learners' pronunciation improved at the segmental and supra-segmental levels. Responses to the questionnaires and their comments showed learners' satisfaction with this new tool that allowed them to make progress.