Enhancing ESL Instruction through Echo Correction: Improving English Pronunciation, Stress, and Intonation

Resumen

Panamanian learners of English have got some competence in intonation after they have been taught
through theoretical sessions in which they do not receive appropriate feedback or any feedback at all.
The present work was an action research; an intervention developed under the qualitative paradigm
that was carried out with freshman students of the B.A. program at C.R.U.V. At the end of the
intervention, the researcher could notice that the use of immediate echo correction had a positive
effect on the students´ speaking skill. Many of them changed from having an average and good level
of performance to a good and very good level of speaking proficiency in terms of intonation. After this,
the researcher could conclude that the constant practice of intonation helps to distinguish between
different types of sentences; and that some students need to be exposed to the explanation of every
type of intonation pitch.