EMI students’ expectations, awareness and learning practices in relation to English pronunciation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28914/Atlantis-2025-47.1.10Keywords:
English pronunciation, English Medium Instruction (EMI), pronunciation awareness , pronunciation practicesAbstract
The present study explored views on English pronunciation of a group of tertiary students on history and economics undergraduate courses which used English as a vehicular language. More specifically, the students completed a questionnaire on their pronunciation expectations in their current undergraduate courses, their self-awareness about their own pronunciation as well as their English pronunciation practices and how relevant they consider English pronunciation to be for their careers. The survey revealed that these students reported pronunciation to be important for communication and for their future and that they would like to improve their pronunciation skills. The results also showed that they are only moderately confident about their English pronunciation, and that they have little self-awareness when asked about various phonetic aspects of their own pronunciation. Those who identified as being active pronunciation learners indicated that their approach mainly involves informal exposure such as using technology for entertainment or establishing contact with English speakers. Very few students reported using more formal pronunciation instruction such as referring to dictionaries or manuals. Finally, some of these students made a distinction between good pronunciation and nativeness, a tentative indicator of the increasing prevalence of the intelligibility principle in English learning these days.Downloads
References
BARAN-ŁUCARZ, Maɬgortzata. 2011. “The relationship between language anxiety and the actual and perceived levels of foreign language pronunciation”. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 1 (4): 491-514.
―. 2014. “The link between pronunciation anxiety and willingness to communicate in the foreign-language classroom: The Polish EFL context”. Canadian Modern Language Review, 70 (4): 445-473.
BARRERA PARDO, Darío. 2004. “Can pronunciation be taught? A review of research and implications for teaching”. Revista alicantina de estudios ingleses: RAEI, (17): 6-38.
BOHN, Ocke-Schwen and James Emil Flege. 1996. “Perception and production of a new vowel category by adult second language learners”. In James and Leather, eds. 1996, 53-73.
CALVO BENZIES, Yolanda J. 2016. “The Teaching and Learning of English Pronunciation in Spain. An Analysis and Appraisal of Students’ and Teachers’ Views and Teaching Materials”. PhD diss. University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
CENOZ, Jasone and Durk Gorter. 2020. “Pedagogical translanguaging: An introduction”. System, 92, 102269.
CODE, J. 2020. “Agency for learning: Intention, motivation, self-efficacy and self-regulation”. Frontiers in Education (5). Article 19.
COLEMAN, James A. 2006. “English-medium teaching in European higher education”. Language teaching, 39 (1): 1-14.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE. 2001. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
―. 2020. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion volume. Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, available at www.coe.int/lang-cefr.
DEARDEN, Julie. 2014. English as a Medium of Instruction: A Growing Global Phenomenon. London: British Council.
DERWING, Tracey M. and Murray J. Munro. 1997. “Accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility: Evidence from four L1s”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19 (1): 1-16.
DOIZ, Aintzane, David Lasagabaster and Juan Manuel Sierra, eds. 2012. English-medium instruction at universities: Global challenges. Multilingual matters.
―. 2013. “Globalisation, internationalisation, multilingualism and linguistic strains in higher education”. Studies in Higher Education, 38(9): 1407-1421.
DOIZ, Aintzane, David Lasagabaster and Victor Pavón. 2019. “The integration of language and content in English-medium instruction courses: Lecturers’ beliefs and practices”. Ibérica, 38: 151-175.
DÖRNYEI, Zoltán and Ema Ushioda, eds. 2009. Motivation, language identity and the L2 self. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.
DÖRNYEI, Zoltán. 2005. The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
DZIUBALSKA-KOŁACZYK, Karatzyna and Joanna Przedlacka, eds. 2008. English pronunciation models: A changing scene. Peter Lang.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION. 2009. The Bologna Process 2020. The European Higher Education Area in the new decade. Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education, Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve.
GATBONTON, Elizabeth, Pavel Trofimovich and Michael Magid. 2005. “Learnersʼ Ethnic Group Affiliation and L2 Pronunciation Accuracy: A Sociolinguistic Investigation”. TESOL Quarterly, 39 (3): 489-512.
GÓMEZ GONZÁLEZ, M. D. L. Á. and R. García Muras. 2025. “EFL Pronunciation Instruction in Spanish Primary Schools: From Prescribed Curriculum to Classroom Practice”. Education Sciences, 15 (4): 427.
GÓMEZ-LACABEX, Esther and Francisco Gallardo-del-Puerto. 2021. “Pronunciation in EMI: A preliminary study of Spanish university students’ intelligibility and comprehensibility”. In Lasagabaster and Doiz, eds., 126-144.
―. 2023. “Pronunciation and intelligibility in English medium-instruction (EMI): Lecturers’ views and skills”. In Sardegna and Jarosz, eds. 2023.
GÓMEZ-LACABEX, Esther and Roothooft. 2023. “Pronunciation in EMI: conceptualization, interlocutor anxiety, and attitudes towards lecturer speech”. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, 4 (1): 77-98.
GROTJAHN, Rudiger. 1991. “The Research Programme Subjective Theories: A New Approach in Second Language Research”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13 (2): 187-214.
GUILLÉN-GALVE, Ignacio. “Investigating the teaching of the pronunciation of English as a lingua franca to adult learners of English for academic purposes: a case for fine-tuning at the intersection of socio-linguistics and English language education”. In Guillén-Galve and Vázquez, eds. 2018, 329-382
― and Ignacio Vázquez, eds. 2023. English as a Lingua Franca and Intercultural Communication: implications and/or applications to the field of English Language Teaching. Bern: Peter Lang.
― and Miguel A. Vela-Tafalla. “Taking the ethnomethodological lens to enquire into academic literacy development in graduate students”. In Muresan and Orna-Montesinos, eds. 2021, 101-121.
MURESAN, Laura-Mihaela and Concepción Orna-Montesinos, eds. 2021. Academic Literacy Development: Perspectives on Multilingual Scholars’ Approaches to Writing. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
HUENSCH, Amanda and Amy S. Thompson. 2017. “Contextualizing attitudes toward pronunciation: Foreign language learners in the United States”. Foreign Language Annals, 50 (2): 410-432.
JAMES, Allan and Jonathan Leather 1996. Second-language speech. Structure and Process. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
JENKINS, Jennifer. 2013. English as a lingua franca in the international university: The politics of academic English language policy. New York: Routledge.
―. 2019. “English medium instruction in higher education: The role of English as lingua franca”. Second handbook of English language teaching, 91-108.
KACHRU, Braj. B. 1996. “The paradigms of marginality”. World Englishes, 15 (3): 241-255.
LASAGABASTER, David and Juan Manuel Sierra. 2002. “University students' perceptions of native and non-native speaker teachers of English”. Language Awareness, 11 (2): 132-142.
LASAGABASTER, David and Aintzane Doiz, eds. 2021. Language Use in English Medium Instruction at University: International Perspectives on Teacher Practice. New York: Routledge.
LASAGABASTER, David. 2018. “Fostering team teaching: Mapping out a research agenda for English-medium instruction at university level”. Language Teaching, 51: 400-416.
LEVIS, John M. 2005. “Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching”. TESOL Quarterly, 39 (3): 369-377.
―. 2015. “Learners’ views of social issues in pronunciation learning”. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 9 (1): A-42.
MACARO, Ernesto et al. 2018. “A systematic review of English medium instruction in higher education”. Language Teaching 51 (1): 36-76.
MAÍZ-ARÉVALO, Carmen and Elena Domínguez-Romero. 2013. “Students’ response to CLIL in tertiary education: the case of business administration and economics at Complutense University”. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas 8: 1-12.
MÜLLER, Mareike. 2013. “Conceptualizing pronunciation as part of translingual/transcultural competence: New impulses for SLA research and the L2 classroom”. Foreign Language Annals, 46 (2): 213-229.
NOWACKA, Marta. 2012. “Questionnaire-based pronunciation studies: Italian, Spanish and polish students’ views on their English pronunciation”. Research in Language, 10 (1): 43-61.
PAWLAK, Mirosɬaw, Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak and Jacub Bielak. 2015. “Exploring advanced learners’ beliefs about pronunciation instruction and their relationship with attainment”. In Waniek-Klimczak and Pawlak, eds. 2015, 3-22.
PENNINGTON, Martha. C. 2021. “Teaching Pronunciation: The State of the Art 2021”. RELC Journal, 52 (1): 3–21.
― and P. Rogerson-Revell. 2019. English pronunciation teaching and research. Contemporary Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan.
REED, Marnie and John M. Levis. 2015. The handbook of English Pronunciation. John Wiley and Sons.
ROSE, Heath and Nicola Galloway. 2019. Global Englishes for language teaching. Cambridge: CUP.
RUBIO-ALCALÁ, Fernando D. and Do Coyle, eds. 2021. Developing and Evaluating Quality Bilingual Practices in Higher Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
SAITO, Kazuya et al. 2019. “How do second language listeners perceive the comprehensibility of foreign-accented speech?” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41 (5): 1133 – 1149.
SARDEGNA, Veronica and Anna Jarosz, eds. 2023. English Pronunciation Teaching: Theory, Practice and Research findings. Multilingual Matters.
SCHMIDT-UNTERBERGER, Barbara. 2018. The English-medium paradigm: A conceptualisation of English-medium teaching in higher education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 21 (5): 527-539.
SZYSZKA, Magdalena. 2017. Pronunciation learning strategies and language anxiety. Switzerland: Springer.
TROFIMOVICH, Pavel, Sara Kennedy and Jennifer Ann Foote. 2015. “Variables Affecting L2 Pronunciation Development”. In Reed and Levis, eds. 2015, 353-374.
VALCKE, Jennifer and Victor Pavón. 2016. “A comparative study on the use of pronunciation strategies for highlighting information in university lectures”. In Wilkinson and Walsh, eds. 2016, 323-341.
WANIEK-KLIMCZAK, Ewa and Karol Klimczak. 2008. “Target in speech development: learners’ views”. In Dziubalska-Kołaczyk and Przedlacka, eds. 2008, 229-249.
WANIEK-KLIMCZAK, Ewa and Mirosław Pawlak. 2015. Teaching and researching the pronunciation of English: Studies in Honour of Włodzimierz Sobkowiak. Springer.
WANIEK-KLIMCZAK, Ewa, Arcadiusz Rojczyk and Andrej Porzuczek. 2015. “‘Polglish’in Polish Eyes: What English Studies Majors Think About Their Pronunciation in English”. In Waniek-Klimczak and Pawlak, eds. 2015, 23-34.
WILKINSON, Robert and Marie Louise Walsh. 2016. Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education: From Theory to Practice. Selected Papers from the 2013 ICLHE Conference. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Esther Gómez Lacabex, Francisco Gallardo del Puerto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The authors retain copyright of articles. They authorise AEDEAN to publish them in its journal Atlantis and to include them in the indexing and abstracting services, academic databases and repositories the journal participates in.
Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), for non-commercial (i.e., personal or academic) purposes only, users are free to share (i.e., copy and redistribute in any medium or format) and adapt (i.e., remix, transform and build upon) articles published in Atlantis, free of charge and without obtaining prior permission from the publisher or the author(s), as long as they give appropriate credit to the author, the journal (Atlantis) and the publisher (AEDEAN), provide the relevant URL link to the original publication and indicate if changes were made. Such attribution may be done in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the journal endorses the user or their use of the material published therein. Users who adapt (i.e., remix, transform or build upon the material) must distribute their contributions under the same licence as the original.
Self-archiving is also permitted, so that authors are allowed to deposit the published PDF version of their articles in academic and/or institutional repositories, without fee or embargo. Authors may also post their individual articles on their personal websites, again on condition that the original link to the online edition is provided.
Authors are expected to know and heed basic ground rules that preclude simultaneous submission and/or duplicate publication. Prospective contributors to Atlantis commit themselves to the following when they submit a manuscript:
- That no concurrent consideration of the same, or almost identical, work by any other journal and/or publisher is taking place.
- That the potential contribution has not appeared previously, in any form whatsoever, in another journal, electronic format or as a chapter/section of a book.
Seeking permission for the use of copyright material is the responsibility of the author.
Funding data
-
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Grant numbers PID2020-115327RB-I00 -
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Grant numbers PID2020- 117882GB-I00 -
Eusko Jaurlaritza
Grant numbers IT1426-22
