STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING PRONUNCIATION ONLINE: SERBIAN EFL LEARNERS’ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Digital tools and online teaching platforms offer vast opportunities for language learning, yet, even though many indeed focus on pronunciation practice only, there seems to be a noticeable lack of research supporting their effectiveness. The current paper investigates Serbian EFL learners' views on the possible strategies employed for successful online pronunciation practice. A total of 105 tertiary-level English-major students at the Faculty of Philology and Arts, University of Kragujevac, Serbia, participated in the pre-designed survey concerning online learning strategies with a particular focus on pronunciation practice. The primary instrument was a questionnaire consisting of three parts: part one concerned with the demographic information on the sample, part two containing statements related to offline pronunciation learning strategies and part three focusing on online pronunciation learning strategies. Based on the results, dominant strategies for pronunciation practice in face-to-face classrooms are directed toward improving individual sounds and intonation. Thus, both segmental and suprasegmental features are incorporated in the students’ pronunciation instruction. When it comes to the pronunciation learning strategies online, students seem to prefer cognitive and metacognitive strategies, while social strategies seem to lack popularity among Serbian EFL students. In general, a relatively even distribution of responses was noted for both ends of the scale for the majority of proposed strategies which is explained by the specific professional orientation of the respondents. The findings underscore important pedagogical implications not only for learning English online, but for the improvement of pronunciation practice in the Serbian EFL context in general.