Relation between perception and production ability during a speech training course

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that perception and production ability are significantly related among L2 learners in natural learning settings. The present study focused on the relation between these two abilities during speech training, specifically examining whether perception or production training alone led to improvements of production or perception ability, and whether the order of perception and production training influenced the improvement of the abilities. Forty-five Japanese university students received thirteen-week perception and production training on six American English contrasts (e.g., b/v, l/r). One group received perception training first, followed by production training, while the order of training was reversed for the other group. It was found that the initial perception training in the former group resulted in a significant but relatively weak transfer to improvements of production ability, while the initial production training in the latter group showed a significant and strong transfer to those of perception ability. It was also shown that the improvements of perception and production ability during the speech training were significantly related in both groups. The order of training, however, did not significantly influence the overall degree of improvements in either of the abilities. Implications for speech learning models will be discussed.