The development of accent and fluency are traced in the speech of 20 Mandarin and 20 Slavic adult immigrants to Canada over a period of 10 months. The participants were enrolled in an ESL program but had no special instruction in either pronunciation or fluency. The immigrants' self-reported exposure to English outside of class was used to…

Although it is recognized that ESL students often need assistance to become more comprehensible speakers, their teachers usually have limited time to devote to pronunciation instruction. Research should help teachers set priorities for pronunciation teaching to address these students' needs as efficiently as possible. Here we test the usefulness…

Computer-based training can be effective in improving second language learners' perceptions and productions of segmental speech contrasts. However, because most previous studies have addressed specific theoretical problems in speech learning, an impact on pedagogy has hardly been felt. Research participants are commonly subjected to rigid research…