THE MULTIMODAL ASSESSMENT TASK: EXTENDING THE PEDAGOGICAL SHIFT IN L2 PRONUNCIATION TEACHING TO ASSESSMENT.

This article explores contemporary approaches to teaching and assessing L2 pronunciation, acknowledging a shift from prioritizing native-like pronunciation to emphasizing intelligibility. Leveraging this transition, the study introduces a Multimodal Assessment Task (MAT) aimed at assessing English pronunciation. The MAT empowers learners to handle the intricacies of spoken language with confidence through a number of structured activities. The participants were twenty-three pre-service teachers taking a pronunciation course in a TEFL program at a state-owned university in Argentina. Their responses to a self-assessment report revealed important advancements in their awareness of pronunciation, bolstered self-confidence, and self-efficacy in relation to learning L2 pronunciation. However, some students pinpointed certain challenges associated with the MAT, including the necessity for additional practice time and guidance, ongoing focus on certain sounds, and some difficulties related to prosody. This article advocates for further research to refine pronunciation teaching and assessment methods in language education, emphasizing ongoing exploration and improvement in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]