The Assessment of Pronunciation and Corrective Feedback Behaviors of Japanese Teachers: A Test Case for Establishing Teacher Training Standards

Abstract

A survey was conducted with 44 Japanese language teachers to clarify appropriate assessments and corrective feedback behaviors towards learners’ pronunciation. Results: (1) When measuring the appropriateness of corrective behaviors, “accuracy” assessments were linked to successfully determining if there was a deviation, “favorability” was used to determine the teacher’s assessment, and “naturalness” to determine whether pronunciation should be corrected. (2) Patterns with longer wrong intonations were assessed more negatively than length-of-pronunciation errors. (3) Having “Instruction Unnecessary” beliefs nudged teachers towards not assessing errors negatively or correcting them. “Instruction Necessary” beliefs showed separate tendencies towards evaluation and feedback.