Insights from English pronunciation MOOC users: The view from ‘the other forgotten continent’

Massive Open and Online Courses (MOOCs) are a valuable contemporary learning resource, and they can be used to promote intelligibility in L2 English pronunciation instruction and learning. Learner reactions to such resources, e.g., in surveys, focus group discussions, comments related to MOOC exercises, etc., potentially reflect their broad language ideology. To this end, we analysed user comments from the MOOC English Pronunciation in a Global World (EPGW) created by Laura Rupp in 2019, focusing on users from Central and South America. This is an under-researched region where three pluricentric languages with different statuses co-exist (Spanish, Portuguese and English), and with a long history of population flows for employment and education. Users’ comments from the seven runs of the MOOC reveal how they perceive the notions of fluency and intelligibility, simultaneously providing insights into their aspirations and goals, and thus filling a gap in the research.

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