ERIC Number: EJ1489144
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Dec
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0023-8333
EISSN: EISSN-1467-9922
Available Date: 2025-01-10
Incidental Nonspeech Auditory Learning Scaffolds Phonetic, Category, and Word Learning in a Foreign Language Classroom
Seth Wiener1; Timothy K. Murphy2; Lori L. Holt3
Language Learning, v75 n4 p1091-1121 2025
There is considerable lab-based evidence for successful incidental learning, in which a learner's attention is directed away from the to-be-learned stimulus and towards another stimulus. In this study, we extend incidental learning research into the language learning classroom. Three groups of adult second language (L2) learners (N = 52) engaged in structured classroom Mandarin learning took part in an 8-week study. One group served as a classroom-only control group. The second group underwent additional intentional auditory training involving Mandarin speech and explicit feedback. The third group underwent additional incidental learning combined with nonspeech "perceptual building block" categories--categories that share critical perceptual dimensions with target L2 speech categories but that are not perceived as speech. We demonstrate that when supplemented with structured classroom learning, incidental learning involving nonspeech analogs promotes phonetic, category, and word learning equivalent to learning from more traditional intentional auditory training.
Descriptors: Incidental Learning, Auditory Perception, Acoustics, Phonetics, Vocabulary Development, Second Language Learning, Mandarin Chinese, Classification
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://oasis-database.org
Author Affiliations: 1Carnegie Mellon University; 2University of Wisconsin-Madison; 3University of Texas at Austin

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