Presentation

What we learn from Vivian: A novice workplace intelligibility tutor’s journey

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Abstract

Vivian never imagined that tutoring pronunciation could feel this daunting. When she began working with Malcolm, a Mandarin-speaking engineer described as “unintelligible” despite decades in the U.S., she hoped to help him communicate more clearly. What followed was a six-month journey marked by breakthroughs, setbacks, and significant emotional challenges. In a workplace where progress was visible and stakes were high, Vivian wrestled with self-doubt, institutional pressure, and the ethical complexity of evaluating Malcolm’s professional prospects. Guided by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, this qualitative case study traces Vivian’s development as a novice tutor within her Zone of Proximal Development, mediated by dialogic interaction, reflective practice, and emergent metalinguistic awareness. Her story reveals how learning to teach is deeply relational, shaped by responsiveness and care as much as by instructional technique. Vivian’s experience illuminates the cognitive and affective demands of pronunciation instruction and calls for more holistic support for novice educators in high-stakes contexts.

Keywords: pronunciation instruction, workplace intelligibility, novice tutor development, sociocultural theory, reflective practice

How to Cite:

Wu, C.-H. (2026). What we learn from Vivian: A novice workplace intelligibility tutor’s journey. In P. Trofimovich, A. Bodea, T.-N. N. Le, R. Suzuki, & C. Teló (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference (pp. 1–12). Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, October 2025. https://doi.org/10.31274/psllt.21302