Designing the foreign language learning environment: From basic research towards product development.

Abstract

In order to examine the acquisition of English by native speakers of Japanese, a series of training studies were conducted under various environments, that is, in the laboratory, at schools, or in virtual spaces over the Internet, and learners of various ages participated. The results demonstrated that web‐based training methods using computers can improve even adult learners’ ability to perceive and produce L2, and that the acquisition of phonological categories plays an important role in the language learning. Based on these results, an L2 training system, dubbed ATR CALL BRIX, was developed by putting emphasis on speech learning. The system is a collection of training tools for speech perception, production, and comprehension. Each component focuses on the acoustic‐phonetic, prosodic, lexical, or semantic decoding level of spoken language. Speech analysis and pronunciation evaluation tools are also provided. The target users vary from children to adults and from beginners to advanced learners. The content is designed with Learning Object concept and each component is adjustable on the learner characteristics and curricula. The system is already in the market. It is suggested that the cross‐language and L2 acquisition studies are readily applicable to designing actual foreign language learning environment. [Work supported by JSPS.]