Perceptual Training Effects on the Acquisition of English Stress by Brazilian Learners

Andressa Brawerman-Albini,Adelaide H P Silva,Luiz Carlos P Albini,Denise Cristina Kluge

doi:10.5539/ijel.v7n6p1

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of perceptual training on Brazilian English language learners’ ability to acquire preantepenultimate stress, or stress on the fourth to last syllable. Since preantepenultimate stress assignment is infrequent in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), it was initially hypothesized that BP speakers would store few examples of this pattern. The training was performed in five sessions and included stress identification tasks followed by immediate feedback. Results confirm the training significantly improved study participants’ perception and production of preantepenultimate syllable stress assignment. Furthermore, participants generalized acquired production patterns to unfamiliar words and retained these patterns for two months after training concluded. With frequent perceptual training, it is believed BP speakers could create a new category of English words with preantepenultimate syllable stress. This study demonstrates that perception training, typically used for the perception or the production of sounds, can also be used to improve the production of L2 stress assignment with very positive results.

Highlights

Many factors influence how native speakers judge the accents of a second language (L2) learners, including suprasegmentals like stress, rhythm, and intonation (Munro, 1995)
Since preantepenultimate stress assignment is infrequent in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), it was initially hypothesized that BP speakers would store few examples of this pattern
Participants generalized acquired production patterns to unfamiliar words and retained these patterns for two months after training concluded. It is believed BP speakers could create a new category of English words with preantepenultimate syllable stress

Summary

Introduction

Many factors influence how native speakers judge the accents of a second language (L2) learners, including suprasegmentals like stress, rhythm, and intonation (Munro, 1995). Kenworthy (1987) points out that native speakers typically do not understand words due to incorrect stress assignment, not mispronunciation of specific sounds. The author provides a number of examples in which misplaced stress assignment results in misunderstanding. When stress is placed on the second syllable of the word “written”, it is instead understood as “retain”. When the syllables com- and -ta- are stressed in the word “comfortable”, the word is mistaken for the phrase “come for a table”. When the syllables -duc- and -ty are stressed in the word “productivity”, the listener may instead hear the phrase “productive tea”

Objectives

Methods

Results