Fostering segmental pronunciation through self-assessment

Abstract

This action research project studies the effect of self-assessment strategies in first-semester university students’ segmental pronunciation while working in a Task-Based Language Teaching context. Ten students at a university in Chia, Colombia participated in this study. They were taking part in different activities including 2-5-minute conversations and presentations about their family, neighborhood, and city, seeking to enhance their segmental pronunciation abilities. The study focused on practicing segmental pronunciation and completing different speaking tasks while using self-assessment strategies that included assessing, monitoring, and reflecting towards own performance. Data analysis was carried out following the grounded theory approach. The findings showed the students improved their segmental pronunciation as it was evidenced after the data analysis. Lastly, the study demonstrated the importance of self assessment strategies as a tool to improve segmental pronunciation performance and the relevance that segmental pronunciation carries in the communication process as it allowed and fostered the communication and interaction between students and the teacher. Key words: learning, self-assessment, language, TBLT, segmental pronunciation.