Preliminary Results on the Development of the Perception of Spanish /e/ and /ei/ by Heritage Learners vs. L2 Learners of Spanish in the Classroom

This exploratory study gives a first glance at the development of the perception of the Spanish /e/-/ei/ contrast by heritage learners in comparison to that of L2 learners in the classroom. To this end, two types of semester-long, explicit phonetic instruction training are compared: High Phonetic Variability Training (HPVT) with exposure to multiple sources of speech, and regular standalone phonetics courses with low variability of speech input (LPVT). Data from two identical pre-test and post-test ABX perceptual discrimination tasks were obtained from 27 students, as well as 7 control speakers whose primary language is Spanish. Results show that heritage learners perceive the contrast better than L2 learners, and that HPVT significantly improves the perception of the /e/-/ei/ contrast. Although heritage learners perform close to a native ceiling and do not significantly differ from native controls, the improvement from pre-test to post-test is larger in heritage learners enrolled in HPVT than LPVT training. These results suggest that, although the discrimination accuracy of Spanish /e/ and /ei/ is already high for heritage learners at the pre-test stage, High Phonetic Variability Training can be beneficial in the perceptual development of their heritage language, even matching their accuracy to that of native speakers.

How explicit instruction improves phonological awareness and perception of L2 sound contrasts in younger and older adults

Despite the importance of conscious awareness in second language acquisition theories, little is known about how L2 speech perception can be improved by explicit phonetic instruction. This study examined the relationship between phonological awareness and perception in Dutch younger and older adult L2 listeners, focusing on English contrasts of two types: a familiar contrast in an unfamiliar position (word-final /t/-/d/) and an unfamiliar contrast (/æ/-/ε/). Awareness was assessed with a task in which written minimal pairs and homophone pairs had to be judged as sounding the same or different. Perception was assessed with a two-alternative forced-choice identification task with auditorily presented words from minimal pairs. We investigated whether listeners’ awareness and perception improved after a video-based explicit instruction that oriented their attention to one of these contrasts, and we tested whether including information about the phonetic cue of vowel duration increased learning. Awareness and perception of each contrast were shown to be moderately correlated at the study’s outset. Furthermore, awareness and perception for each contrast generally improved more after the instruction drawing attention to that contrast. However, the effectiveness of explicit phonetic instruction varied depending on the combination of the contrast, cue information, and listener age group.

Explicit phonetic instruction vs. implicit attention to native exposure: phonological awareness of English schwa in CLIL

The present study aims at determining whether instruction in the form of explicit phonetic training and of implicit exposure to native input impacted Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) students’ phonological awareness of the occurrence of English schwa in unstressed syllables of content words (bacon). Four intact CLIL groups were administered a perception task immediately before and after an intervention period of one month in which two groups underwent explicit instruction on the incidence of reduced vowels versus full vowels in English disyllabic words while another group was exposed to native input in their CLIL sessions. A fourth CLIL group with neither explicit intervention nor native teacher input served as control group. All four groups tended to judge both schwas and full vowels as correct in the pre-test, indicating that they were not knowledgeable of the general pattern of vowel reduction occurrence in unstressed syllables in English prior to intervention. In the post-test, the three experimental groups significantly improved their ability to identify full vowels as incorrect, the groups receiving explicit instruction exhibiting higher gains than the group which was implicitly exposed to native input.

Explicit Phonetic Instruction and Pronunciation Skills of Grade 10 High School Students

The Explicit Phonetic Instruction-Centered (EPIC) Module is a compilation of topics and exercises in English pronunciation made and modified by the researchers where the explicit phonetic instruction is highlighted as the main approach to enhance the pronunciation skills of the respondents. The study is aimed at evaluating, validating, and determining the effectiveness of the EPIC Module and its actual delivery conducted to the Grade 10 students of Kauran National High School in the Philippines. A panel consisting of five teachers from different schools served as evaluators of the module to validate its content, relevance, acceptability and instructional quality. To determine how the module was delivered, another five English teachers observed and evaluated the researcher-teachers in the implementation of the module. The respondents of the study for both the experimental and control groups were chosen randomly. The researchers used mean in the validation of the module and in the performance of the researcher-teachers based on the delivery of the module. To identify whether there was or no significant difference on the respondents’ performance and mean gain scores, t-test was used. The findings revealed that students in experimental group improved their pronunciation skills significantly due to the intervention of the EPIC Module and its excellent delivery. It was statistically verified that the use of EPIC Module apparently improves the English pronunciation skills of the respondents.

Second language pronunciation: a summary of teaching techniques

The aim of the paper is to give a critical summary of the traditional and more alternative techniques and activities for pronunciation practice recommended in the literature. In the past few decades the theoretical approaches to teaching pronunciation have changed considerably, from giving a strong focus on the accurate production of individual speech sounds to shifting the focus onto the greater communicative relevance of connected speech and intelligibility. Approaching L2 pronunciation teaching is not an easy task, and it needs to be systematically dealt with. The paper discusses several decisions teachers need to make when choosing activities for pronunciation practice: selecting the type of phonological structure to practice, deciding on the speech mode, determining the structural level of practice, focusing on a particular type of instruction, establishing the degree of control of the structure that is practiced, and choosing which cognitive skill to enhance while practicing. With regard to the various techniques for teaching pronunciation, the analysis shows they have adapted accordingly in line with the different trends. Hence, while traditional activities such as automatic repetition, ear-training and explicit phonetic instruction are still considered effective, additional priority is given to activities for raising phonological awareness, communicative activities and techniques that adopt an interdisciplinary approach.

Overcoming Pronunciation Difficulty

Using authentic materials as pronunciation models and having an explicit phonetic instruction in English pronunciation pedagogy will develop our English pronunciation awareness and will build our confidence in using English orally. By having such kinds of awareness and confidence, we can avoid mispronunciation possibly occurring in our oral communication.

Long Term Effect of Phonetic Instruction on the Production of /p/ by EFL Arab Learners: an Exploratory Study

Most previous studies, that have examined the effect of explicit pronunciation instruction on foreign language speech, have focused on the short term effect of explicit pronunciation instruction, usually measured immediately after instruction. For this reason, it is not yet clear whether the attested benefit from pronunciation instruction can be sustained for a long time after instruction. The current study attempted to explore the long term effect of phonetic instruction on the production of the English bilabial voiceless stop /p/ by Arab learners of English as foreign language (EFL, henceforth). Nine Arab EFL learners were assigned to two groups, control and experimental. The experimental group received phonetic instruction on how to produce the English sound /p/, whereas the control group did not. The production of the English sound /p/ was elicited from all the learners in both groups, once before the instruction and once after 11 weeks of the instruction. Two experienced native English instructors were asked to judge whether the students produced /p/ or /b/. The results generally showed no benefit from the phonetic instruction on the delayed production of /p/ by the EFL Arab learners. Although the results do not seem encouraging for pronunciation instruction, it is difficult to reach a conclusion with regard to pronunciation instruction due to the small sample size used in the current exploratory study, and to the difficulty to generalize the results on /p/ to all other sounds. Future studies may use larger sample sizes and include more sounds in their instruction methods.

Improving ASL fingerspelling comprehension in L2 learners with explicit phonetic instruction

Students acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language (L2) struggle with fingerspelling comprehension more than skilled signers. These L2 learners might be attempting to perceive and comprehend fingerspelling in a way that is different from native signers, which could negatively impact their ability to comprehend fingerspelling. This could be related to improper weighting of cues that skilled signers use to identify fingerspelled utterances. Improper cue-weighting in spoken language learners has been ameliorated through explicit phonetic instruction, but this method of teaching has yet to be applied to learners of a language in a new modality (M2 learners). The present study assesses this prospect. Eighteen university students in their third-semester of ASL were divided into two groups; one received explicit phonetic training, and the other received implicit training on fingerspelling. Data from a fingerspelling comprehension test, with two experimental conditions and a control, were submitted to a mixed effects logistic regression. This revealed a significant improvement from the pre-test to post-test by students who received the explicit training. Results indicate that even short exposure to explicit phonetic instruction significantly improves participants’ ability to understand fingerspelling, suggesting that ASL curricula should include this type of instruction to improve students’ fingerspelling comprehension abilities.