Published research shows that focusing on pronunciation when learning a foreign language is crucial for improving intelligibility, building confidence, enhancing listening skills, and reinforcing other language components. 

The primary goal of pronunciation instruction is to develop intelligible, comprehensible speech, and the confidence to use it. 

Summary

Communication Effectiveness

• Improves intelligibility: Even when grammar and vocabulary are accurate, poor pronunciation can hinder a listener's understanding. Research shows that targeted pronunciation instruction improves learners' comprehensibility and intelligibility, which is defined as how well a message is understood by a listener.

• Enhances fluency and clarity: Clear pronunciation reduces the effort required for listeners to understand, making conversations smoother. By focusing on pronunciation, learners can achieve a more natural-sounding rhythm and intonation, which contribute to perceived fluency.

• Focuses on key features: The most effective pronunciation instruction prioritizes features that have the greatest impact on intelligibility. Research indicates that suprasegmental features, such as rhythm, stress, and intonation, often affect intelligibility more than segmental features (individual vowel and consonant sounds). 

Cognitive and Psychological Benefits

• Builds learner confidence: As learners master their pronunciation, their confidence in speaking the new language increases. This boost in confidence makes them more willing to engage in conversations and take risks, which accelerates the language learning process.

• Enhances listening skills: The act of learning and producing new sounds sharpens a learner's ability to hear and perceive them more accurately when others speak. This connection is often described as the mouth teaching the ear.

• Strengthens memory and vocabulary: Research suggests that learning a word's correct pronunciation helps learners encode it into long-term memory. Students who focus on pronunciation find it easier to memorize and recall new vocabulary. 

Integration with Other Language Skills

• Supports reading and spelling: The connection between sound and spelling means that focused pronunciation practice can also improve reading skills. For example, learners who can't pronounce a word may struggle to process it when reading.

• Reinforces grammar and vocabulary: As one study described it, pronunciation is the "cement" that holds together a learner's grammar and vocabulary. Mastering the phonological rules of the language allows learners to use new words and structures more effectively.

• Integrates into communicative practice: Researchers and educators emphasize that pronunciation instruction should be integrated into meaningful communication tasks, rather than treated as a separate, isolated exercise. Studies show that this contextualized practice helps improve both fluency and intelligibility. 

Research Excerpts

Powerful and Effective Pronunciation Instruction: How Can We Achieve It?

“Pronunciation instruction is still underemphasized in many language programs as well as in teacher-training curricula despite reports of significant improvement from many studies. Three factors may account for this resistance and for the difficulty of making pronunciation instruction an integral part of language teaching: the time obstacle, the methodology obstacle, and the curricular obstacle.

Lowering or eliminating resistance related to the “when, what, and how” of pronunciation teaching can help us reach our goal of everyday powerful pronunciation instruction. The most important solution that can ease the “time” problem is to integrate pronunciation instruction early in the curriculum. This step will be even more efficient if oral skills are evaluated and assessed regularly. If pronunciation matters on the tests students take, students will also pay attention. To lower resistance pertaining to “how,” it is critical to make pronunciation instruction fun and real by integrating it into communicative activities. This will help with the transfer problem. Finally, to reduce the “what” resistance, the most important thing is to help teachers learn how to choose the right focus, which can vary for each new group of learners. This is perhaps the most challenging aspect, logistically and training-wise, because it requires diagnosis and prioritizing. Both are easier to implement if the teacher possesses knowledge about phonology and specific training about pronunciation teaching.”

Citation: Darcy, Isabelle. (2018). Powerful and Effective Pronunciation Instruction: How Can We Achieve It?. The CATESOL Journal. 30. 10.5070/B5.35963. 

The Efficacy of the Type of Instruction on Second Language Pronunciation Acquisition

“Pronunciation is an important sub-system of language, without which successful communication is not achieved (Levis, 2018). Indeed, mastery of other sub-systems (vocabulary and grammar) of language does not determine a speaker’s overall proficiency in the language because pronunciation is a basic aspect of both grammar and vocabulary (Nation and Newton, 2009). That is, mastering second language (L2) pronunciation allows language learners to develop new words and structures. Nation and Newton (2009) argue that knowing the pronunciation of words and phrases helps learners to store them in the long-term memory. Thus, achieving a high level of L2 pronunciation is an essential component of linguistic and communicative competence. Derwing (2018) argues that “some individuals, despite a great deal of exposure to their L2, and ample opportunities to interact, still exhibited aspects of pronunciation that made them difficult to understand” (p. 322). Therefore, the development of comprehensible and intelligible speech is a fundamental aim of pronunciation instruction (henceforth PI). Although early research reported that some aspects of L2 pronunciation are unteachable (Taylor, 1993), more recent enquiries showed promising results of the efficacy of PI (Lee et al., 2015; Gordon, 2021).“

Citation: Alghazo S, Jarrah M and Al Salem MN (2023) The efficacy of the type of instruction on second language pronunciation acquisition. Front. Educ. 8:1182285. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1182285

Teachers' and Learners' Beliefs About Pronunciation Instruction in Tertiary English as a Foreign Language Education

“Pronunciation is a fundamental component of communicative competence (Derwing and Munro, 2015; Jones, 2018), since it “permeates all spheres of human life […], in which the speaker and the hearer work together to produce and understand each other’s utterances” (Foote and Trofimovich, 2018, p. 85). In second language (L2) learning, learners who have pronunciation problems are less likely to be properly understood in oral communication irrespective of their excellent grammar and vocabulary (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010; Thomson and Derwing, 2014). Moreover, pronunciation enhances learners’ ability to decode spoken English more efficiently (Adams-Goertel, 2013; Seyedabadi et al., 2015), and research has shown that pronunciation instruction improves listening skills (Ahangari et al., 2015; Kissling, 2018). In this respect, good pronunciation provides grounds for L2 learners’ subsequent development of oral skills.”

Citation: Nguyen LT, Hung BP, Duong UTT, Le TT. Teachers' and Learners' Beliefs About Pronunciation Instruction in Tertiary English as a Foreign Language Education. Front Psychol. 2021 Aug 20;12:739842. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.739842. PMID: 34489841; PMCID: PMC8417832.

How Speech-to-Text Technology Affects Pronunciation Gains and Self-Confidence in EFL Learners

“Pronunciation plays a crucial role in second language (L2) communication, affecting intelligibility, fluency, and listener perception. While native-like pronunciation has traditionally been seen as unrealistic for adult learners due to the critical period hypothesis (Lenneberg, 1967), the claim that adults cannot achieve the proficiency levels of those who started learning at a younger age has been widely criticized (Flege, 1987; Singleton & Leśniewska, 2021). For most adult learners, however, intelligibility—the ability to be understood by others—remains a key goal (Munro & Derwing, 2015). Research has identified two major aspects of pronunciation: segmental features (individual phonemes) and suprasegmental features (rhythm, stress, and intonation) (Jenkins, 2000). Among Japanese learners of English, phonemic distinctions such as /ð/ and /θ/, vowel length contrasts, stress patterns, and rhythm pose persistent difficulties (Nishihara & Leis, 2014; Saito, 2011). Addressing these challenges through effective pronunciation instruction is essential for improving both communication skills and learner confidence.

A critical yet often overlooked aspect of pronunciation training is its impact on learners’ self-confidence (Szyszka, 2016). MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) describe linguistic self-confidence as a key predictor of willingness to communicate in a second language. While explicit pronunciation training improves accuracy, it can also heighten learners’ awareness of their mistakes, leading to increased self-consciousness (McCrocklin, 2019). This dynamic can be understood through Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory, which posits that learners’ perceptions of their competence—shaped by feedback—play a critical role in influencing their motivation and persistence. In language learning contexts, feedback that enhances perceived competence can strengthen self-confidence, whereas feedback that draws attention to errors may lower self-efficacy and reduce engagement (Mills et al., 2007; Wang & Mercer, 2021).”

Citation: Leis, A. (2025). How speech-to-text technology affects pronunciation gains and self-confidence in EFL learners. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2025.2534498

Pronunciation instruction in the context of world English: exploring university EFL instructors’ perceptions and practices

“English is spoken as a second language (L2) by just over 1 billion people worldwide (Yadav, 2023), and most of these L2 speakers have been taught by non-native speakers. English is no longer solely tied to its traditional native-speaker communities (such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, etc.) but has become a global language with multiple localized adaptations and variations. 

Teaching pronunciation is crucial to language learning and teaching (Derwing, 2019; Kochem, 2022; Murphy, 2017; Nagel et al., 2018; Uchida and Sugimoto, 2020). Pronunciation affects how learners communicate in English and how others perceive them. Poor pronunciation can hinder learners’ ability to be understood and communicate effectively, leading to frustration and a lack of confidence. 

The importance of pronunciation instruction in EFL teaching has been well-established in the literature. Research has consistently highlighted the vital role of pronunciation in enhancing learners’ intelligibility, confidence, motivation, and overall communicative competence (Derwing, 2019; Kochem, 2022; Murphy, 2017; Nagel et al., 2018; Uchida and Sugimoto, 2020). However, the literature suggests a concerning disconnect between the recognized importance of pronunciation instruction and the realities of what takes place in many EFL classrooms. Understanding these underlying issues is crucial for developing strategies to address the pronunciation instruction gap.”

Citation: Almusharraf, A. Pronunciation instruction in the context of world English: exploring university EFL instructors’ perceptions and practices. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11, 847 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03365-y