Observing oral input for second language development: A case study of English pronunciation in Hong Kong Kindergarten education

Oral input has been identified as a key factor in children’s second language development. In the context of kindergarten education, oral input comes mainly from teachers in the classroom setting. For the investigation of oral input in classrooms, a structured observation scheme is needed for systematic data collection. This paper presents the development of an observation scheme for pronunciation input. The scheme is based on the Input Quality Observation Scheme by Weitz, Pahl, Mattsson, Buyl and Kalbe (2010), which was developed to record the input quality of teachers. It was adapted to observe specifically the pronunciation input in classrooms, including the factors related to the characteristics of a teacher’s pronunciation input (e.g. intonation and verbal reinforcement), and the promotion of listening comprehension. It also records children’s output, such as the amount of words used in a second language and the output characteristics (e.g. intonation and use of new words for interaction). The observation scheme was piloted in a Hong Kong kindergarten for examining the English pronunciation of teachers and children in the classroom. Two lesson observations were conducted in a K2 class with eight children and a K3 class with 19 children, both of which were taught by local Chinese teachers. The lessons were conducted fully in English with rich oral input given. Despite the teachers having near-native English proficiency, there were features of pronunciation commonly found in Hong Kong English in the teachers’ pronunciation; and similar pronunciation features also occurred in the children’s output, suggesting that they were influenced by the teachers’ input. Based on the results, further developments of the observation scheme are discussed.