Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher Education by Nat Bartels

206 WHAT’S PHONETICS GOT TO DO WITH TEACHING?dealing with observation and description asked what aspects of Spanish pronunciationmost often lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding for English L1 speakers.The personal connection questions asked (1) if the participants had ever been correctedwith respect to their pronunciation and what emotional effect the experience hadproduced in them and (2) what opinions the participants formed of those who do notsound native-like in their pronunciation. The questions dealing with application alludedto the proposed critical/sensitive period by asking participants to consider the age of thelearner as well as by forcing the participants to consider when and how pronunciationshould be taught (a topic to which I had not dedicated much class time). Finally, theparticipants were asked to evaluate the action that they took (the pronunciation tutoring)as to whether or not it was a beneficial experience and what was learned from theexperience.Learners were told that the answers to reflection questions would not be graded ongrammar but rather on the extent to which the reflection questions were answeredthoroughly and completely according to the rubric (explained above) and that theywould receive credit for faithfully keeping the journal (3 points possible/question).During the first semester, the reflection journal was kept with paper and pen and turnedin incrementally at the end of each unit of study. During the second semester, thereflection questions were answered on line at the end of the semester immediatelyfollowing the pronunciation-tutoring project, using the assessment manager ofBlackboard, the electronic course management system. The questions were posed inEnglish and the trainees were allowed to answer in either Spanish or English accordingto their language preference since I thought language should not be an impediment to theexpression of what they wanted to say.Research QuestionsThe study focuses on the following questions:1) To what extent do novice teachers make use of KAL when reflecting on theirteaching?2) What aspects of pronunciation do novice teachers tend to overlook in theirteaching?3) How do novice teachers view the usefulness of KAL components of teachereducation courses?4) What was the quality of KAL acquired for the purposes of teaching by thenovice teachers who participated in this study?RESULTSQuantitative DataTable 1 is a quantitative presentation of the categorization into three types of noviceteachers’ responses to reflection questions. In order to analyze the novice teachers’