The present study investigates the effect of high variability phonetic training (HVPT) on the discrimination of second language (L2) vowel contrasts by adult speakers who live in a country where the L2 is dominant. The same subjects who participated in a previous discrimination task were trained in the discrimination of four L2 vowel contrasts…

Scholars have extensively investigated the effectiveness of high variability phonetic training (HVPT), that is, identification and discrimination of second language speech sounds produced by multiple speakers followed by trial-by-trial feedback. Building on the notion of incidental and multimodal learning in cognitive psychology (e.g., Lim &…

The acquisition of a sound system is an integral component of second language (L2) communication, yet it is one of the most difficult skills to teach and is therefore largely ignored in L2 classrooms (Derwing, 2010). In laboratory settings, phonetic training studies have typically examined syllables, rather than words, with no referential meaning.…

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate deficits in vocabulary development and novel word learning processes, which have been proposed to stem from their speech perception deficits. Aims: This study had two aims. The first was to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention incorporating a computer-based phonetic…

This study investigated the effect of two distinct computer-based phonetic training procedures administered in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom with young learners. Students' perceptual awareness of the occurrence of an English schwa in an unstressed position in content words was tested in two experimental groups, which underwent…

Traditional pronunciation instruction and instruction in second language (L2) phonetics have been shown to improve learners' L2 accent in some, though certainly not all, cases. Learners in intermediate and advanced Spanish FL courses have shown modest improvement in the pronunciation of some L2 phones after receiving such instruction.…

THIS REPORT DESCRIBES IN DETAIL FIVE RELATED EXPERIMENTS THAT WERE CONDUCTED IN AREAS PERTAINING TO THE TEACHING OF FRENCH PRONUNCIATION TO NATIVE SPEAKERS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH. THE FIRST TWO EXPERIMENTS SOUGHT TO DETERMINE THE RELATIVE ACCEPTABILITY OF 38 ENGLISH PHONEMES TO NATIVE FRENCH LISTENERS AT EACH OF TWO ACCEPTABILITY LEVELS--PHONEMIC AND…

Teaching pronunciation is more like gymnastics than linguistics because it involves converting a series of mental processes into motor activity. Many variables contribute to the facility with which a student will learn pronunciation, but age causes the greatest variation in standards of pronunciation learning between individuals. Though increased…

The phonetic transcription ability of 78 college students whose transcription instruction was administered by means of pre-programed Language Master cards was compared with that of 81 students whose instruction was non-automated. Ability was measured by seven weekly tests. There was no significant relationship on any of 29 variables with type of…

Designed by speech pathologists for use with preschool children, 54 lessons utilize the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA). Beginning with the presentation of a single sound and its ITA symbol, lessons progress systematically through all the symbols; synthesis of the elements into syllables, words, sentences, stories, and general conversation is…