Social pressure and prestige have been viewed as barriers to oral performance in the
L2 classroom, but their impact has not been extensively examined in foreign language
(FL) contexts. Learner decisions to accept or reject prescriptive pronunciation
norms may confer prestige, which may both privilege and marginalize novice classroom
learners. This paper examines how adult, monolingual FL learners’ oral
performance is affected by the degree to which they associate prestige with
classmate and teacher (dis)approval. We explore relationships among the following
variables: (1) learners’ views of their own and their peers’
pronunciation skills; (2) values associated with native-like speech; (3) beliefs
about social conditions favourable to target-like speech; and (4) the accuracy of
learners’ perceptions of desirable pronunciation patterns. Data are drawn
from 11 audio-recorded FL class sessions, 10 ethnographic interviews, and
questionnaire responses supplied by 282 students in French and Spanish cohorts.
Analyses reveal that participants profess a strong desire to attain
‘standard’ pronunciation. However, findings also highlight
striking disjunctions between learners’ perceptions and their observed
production, reflecting a concern for social status and solidarity. Finally, results
expose a tendency to inflate oral performance self-assessments, which may conceal
learners’ inability to notice mismatches between their production and
target norms.
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