Phonetic Training Research Articles

Feature Acquisition in Second Language Phonetic Development: Evidence From Phonetic Training

AbstractThis study employed a targeted phonetic instruction to explore the mechanisms that underpin second language (L2) phonetic acquisition. Broadly, two general approaches to phonetic acquisition have been previously proposed. A segmental approach suggests that learners acquire a series of individual, discrete phonemes (e.g., Flege, 1995), while a featural approach posits that L2 phonetic development occurs at the subsegmental level of the feature, which may be shared across multiple phonemes (e.g., de Jong, Hao, & Park, 2009). This study extended this line of research, using a visual feedback paradigm to train English speakers on one of the three voiceless stop consonants in Spanish. Analysis focused on the change in voice onset time across three testing sessions (pretest, posttest, delayed posttest). Results demonstrated a significant change in voice onset time for trained and nontrained phonemes, suggesting that featural changes generalize to related phonemes. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

Effects of Computer Assisted High Variability Phonetic Training on Perception of Difficult Phonemes for Japanese Learners of English

Effects of Computer Assisted High Variability Phonetic Training on Perception of Difficult Phonemes for Japanese Learners of English

Arabic-speakers Learning Finnish Vowels: Short-term Phonetic Training Supports Second Language Vowel Production

Considering all the many challenges of forced migration to the immigrants themselves, learning the local language is of extreme importance when attempting to integrate into a new society. Earlier research shows that the mother tongue phonology disturbs the perception of those redundant contrasts that are crucial to the target language, which then affects the production of the second language. The main purpose of this study was to see whether Arabic speakers learn to produce universally difficult non-native vowel sounds with only a short and simple articulatory training protocol. Thirteen Arabic speaking asylum seekers were tested and trained with natural stimuli produced by four speakers. The vowels /y/ and /ø/ were embedded in pseudowords /ty:ti/ and /tø:ti/. The first three formants of both pre- and post-test productions were analyzed, and the results of both acoustic and statistical analyses showed that there was a significant change in the production of both vowels. This implies that even a short-term phonetic training improves the production of the target language, which is worth noting as an enabler of the language learning process that immigrants undergo during their journey towards cultural integration.

High Variability [Pronunciation] Training (HVPT)

AbstractThis article is a critical research synthesis of 32 studies that used the High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) technique to teach learners to better perceive and produce L2 sounds. Taken together, the studies surveyed provide compelling evidence that HVPT is a very effective pronunciation training tool, and that resulting improvement is long-lasting. The analysis of this research also helps to explain why very few teachers have heard of this empirically-driven approach to pronunciation instruction: HVPT studies are largely published in technically oriented journals; few are accessible to language teachers. A variety of obstacles to the widespread use of HVPT are discussed, and some possible solutions are provided.

The creation of a new vowel category by adult learners after adaptive phonetic training

Native Japanese speakers often perceive English vowels based on their duration, whereas native speakers use spectral cues (formant frequencies). The current study examined whether 23 Japanese adult learners of English could create a new vowel category along the spectral dimension after phonetic training with the English vowels /i/-/ɪ/ as in beat and bit. As in previous training studies, the Japanese trainees improved their ability to categorize the vowels in tokens included in the training, and were able to generalize to novel tokens and talkers. A cue-weighting task confirmed that the Japanese trainees categorized the vowels based on temporal cues before training, presumably because vowel duration is used phonologically in Japanese. While 12 of the Japanese trainees still relied on vowel duration to distinguish the English vowels after training, 11 of them successfully created a new vowel category along the spectral dimension. However, their category boundary between /i/-/ɪ/ was set at a different location from that of native speakers. We interpret these results as providing evidence that it is possible for late inexperienced learners to create new phonetic categories with phonetic training, but that the new categories may be subject to phonetic category dissimilation, an effect previously documented with early bilinguals.

High variability phonetic training in adaptive adverse conditions is rapid, effective, and sustained.

This paper evaluates a novel high variability phonetic training paradigm that involves presenting spoken words in adverse conditions. The effectiveness, generalizability, and longevity of this high variability phonetic training in adverse conditions was evaluated using English phoneme contrasts in three experiments with Malaysian multilinguals. Adverse conditions were created by presenting spoken words against background multi-talker babble. In Experiment 1, the adverse condition level was set at a fixed level throughout the training and in Experiment 2 the adverse condition level was determined for each participant before training using an adaptive staircase procedure. To explore the effectiveness and sustainability of the training, phonemic discrimination ability was assessed before and immediately after training (Experiments 1 and 2) and 6 months after training (Experiment 3). Generalization of training was evaluated within and across phonemic contrasts using trained and untrained stimuli. Results revealed significant perceptual improvements after just three 20-minute training sessions and these improvements were maintained after 6 months. The training benefits also generalized from trained to untrained stimuli. Crucially, perceptual improvements were significantly larger when the adverse conditions were adapted before each training session than when it was set at a fixed level. As the training improvements observed here are markedly larger than those reported in the literature, this indicates that the individualized phonetic training regime in adaptive adverse conditions (HVPT-AAC) is highly effective at improving speech perception.

Explicit phonetic instruction vs. implicit attention to native exposure: phonological awareness of English schwa in CLIL

AbstractThe present study aims at determining whether instruction in the form of explicit phonetic training and of implicit exposure to native input impacted Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) students’ phonological awareness of the occurrence of Englishschwain unstressed syllables of content words (bacon). Four intact CLIL groups were administered a perception task immediately before and after an intervention period of one month in which two groups underwent explicit instruction on the incidence of reduced vowels versus full vowels in English disyllabic words while another group was exposed to native input in their CLIL sessions. A fourth CLIL group with neither explicit intervention nor native teacher input served as control group. All four groups tended to judge bothschwasand full vowels as correct in the pre-test, indicating that they were not knowledgeable of the general pattern of vowel reduction occurrence in unstressed syllables in English prior to intervention. In the post-test, the three experimental groups significantly improved their ability to identify full vowels as incorrect, the groups receiving explicit instruction exhibiting higher gains than the group which was implicitly exposed to native input.

Фонодидактика русских [р] и [р'] в контексте холистического мультимодального подхода

This article is devoted to the problems of phonodidactics of Russian [r] and [rj] with a special focus on the difficulties in the pronunciation of these sounds connected with interference from Polish. The article suggests phonodidatic solutions in the context of the holistic multimodal approach as offered by Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłowska. The paper describes the main principles of this innovative approach and presents examples of phonetic training in a group of students studying Russian.

On the Role of Cognitive Abilities in Second Language Vowel Learning.

This study investigated the role of different cognitive abilities-inhibitory control, attention control, phonological short-term memory (PSTM), and acoustic short-term memory (AM)-in second language (L2) vowel learning. The participants were 40 Azerbaijani learners of Standard Southern British English. Their perception of L2 vowels was tested through a perceptual discrimination task before and after five sessions of high-variability phonetic training. Inhibitory control was significantly correlated with gains from training in the discrimination of L2 vowel pairs. However, there were no significant correlations between attention control, AM, PSTM, and gains from training. These findings suggest the potential role of inhibitory control in L2 phonological learning. We suggest that inhibitory control facilitates the processing of L2 sounds by allowing learners to ignore the interfering information from L1 during training, leading to better L2 segmental learning.

Using high variability phonetic training to train non-tonal listeners with no musical background to perceive lexical tones

Previous research has not extensively investigated whether High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) is effective in training listeners with no musical background and no prior experience with a tone language in their identification of non-native lexical tones. In this study, it was investigated whether HVPT is applicable to the acquisition of non-native tones by such listeners. Twenty-one speakers of American English were trained in eight sessions using the HVPT approach to identify Mandarin tones in monosyllabic words. Ten of the participants were exposed to words produced by multiple talkers (MT condition), and eleven participants were exposed to words produced by a single talker (ST condition). The listeners’ identification accuracy revealed an average 44% increase from the pretest to the posttest for the MT condition and an average 30% increase for the ST condition. The improvement also generalized to new monosyllabic words produced by a familiar talker and those produced by two unfamiliar talkers. The learning however did not generalize to novel disyllabic words produced either by a familiar talker or an unfamiliar talker. Comparisons between two groups further revealed that the improvement of the listeners in the MT condition was significantly higher than that of the listeners in the ST condition.

Clinicians' views of the training, use and maintenance of phonetic transcription in speech and language therapy.

The critical role of phonetic transcription in the assessment, diagnosis and management of speech disorders is well established and thus pre-registration degrees dedicate numerous hours to phonetic training. However, this training is not always fully used in clinical work and clinicians may find it difficult to maintain their skills, suggesting a 'theory/practice gap'. This paper surveys speech and language therapists' (SLTs) views of their training, practice and maintenance of transcription in order to investigate the posited theory/practice gap and to explore how education in phonetics is translated into practice. A total of 759 SLTs from the UK were surveyed via an online questionnaire. Multiple-choice questions were analysed using descriptive statistics, and free-text comments were analysed thematically. Thirty-five per cent of SLTs found learning phonetics quite easy, and 30% quite difficult. Respondents suggested that more time was needed to practise transcription in and out of the classroom; nevertheless, the majority felt at least equipped to undertake transcription after their training. A total of 75% of SLTs require transcription for their role, with 61% using it often or all the time. Some 45% use a mix of broad and narrow transcription, with 41% using only broad transcription. Those not using narrow transcription attributed this to lack of confidence. A total of 57% of SLTs did not feel supported to maintain transcription skills in the workplace, and 80% had never attended a refresher course in transcription, with 75% wishing to do so. As many clinicians found it difficult to learn transcription, there is an opportunity to provide more transcription practice both in and beyond the classroom. Despite most clinicians feeling equipped to undertake transcription upon completion of their training, and a large majority requiring transcription for their role, a theory/practice gap is apparent in the relatively small number of clinicians using narrow transcription exclusively, and those not using it expressing lack of confidence in their skills. Additionally, as many clinicians have never attended refresher training in transcription, and rely on their course notes to maintain their skills, more provision of opportunities for revision should be made available. With clinicians remembering a need for more practice during their training, and expressing a desire for more training opportunities in practice, there is an opportunity for clinicians, educators and regulatory bodies to work together to provide packages of transcription training material that can be used by students and practitioners to maintain and extend their skills.

High Variability Phonetic Training as a Bridge From Research to Practice

High Variability Phonetic Training as a Bridge From Research to Practice

Non-native phonetic learning is destabilized by exposure to phonological variability before and after training.

Phonological variability is a key factor in many phonetic training studies, but it is unclear whether variability is universally helpful for learners. The current study explored variability and sleep consolidation in non-native phonetic learning. Two groups of participants were trained on a non-native contrast in one vowel context (/u/) and differed in whether they were also tested on an untrained context (/i/). Participants exposed to two vowels during the test were less accurate in perception of trained speech sounds and showed no overnight improvement. These findings suggest that introducing variability even in test phases may destabilize learning and prevent consolidation-based performance improvements.

Can perception training improve the production of second language phonemes? A meta-analytic review of 25 years of perception training research

ABSTRACTCognitive scientists across disciplines have shown a vested interest in examining if and how the speech perception and production modalities are connected. The field of second language (L2) acquisition contributes to this discussion by investigating the effects of auditory training of L2 sounds on pronunciation. This meta-analysis offers a comprehensive view of the last 25 years of L2 perception training studies that test for effects in production. The results indicate that the two modalities are connected, insomuch as training the perception of L2 sounds can induce positive change in the productive mode as well. The data indicate that strictly controlled perception training led to medium-sized improvements in perception (d= 0.92,SD= 0.96) and small improvements in production (d= 0.54,SD= 0.45). A correlation analysis suggests a small- to medium-sized relationship between perception and production gains, although this relationship was not significant. The production of obstruents improved to a larger degree than sonorants or vowels, and an additional six moderating variables influenced the magnitude of the production effect sizes. We caution researchers to not equate the connection of the two modalities in long-term linguistic development to real-time neurological processing, and we end with five recommendations for the domain of L2 phonetic training research.

Perceptual Training of Second-Language Vowels: Does Musical Ability Play a Role?

The present study attempts to extend the research on the effects of phonetic training on the production and perception of second-language (L2) vowels. We also examined whether success in learning L2 vowels through high-variability intensive phonetic training is related to the learners' general musical abilities. Forty Azerbaijani learners of Standard Southern British English participated in a pre-test/training/post-test setting. Discrimination and production tests were used in pre- and post-tests. The participants' musical ability was evaluated through three musical aptitude tests. Results revealed a significant improvement in the discrimination and production of L2 vowels after training. However, the lack of a one-to-one relationship between production and perception gains suggests distinct representations underlying L2 speech perception and production. There was no significant correlation between overall musical ability scores and L2 vowel learning, however, results revealed a correlation between discrimination improvements and tonal memory. This suggests tonal memory facilitates the perceptual learning of the novel phonological structure of L2.

High or low? Comparing high and low-variability phonetic training in adult and child second language learners.

BackgroundHigh talker variability (i.e., multiple voices in the input) has been found effective in training nonnative phonetic contrasts in adults. A small number of studies suggest that children also benefit from high-variability phonetic training with some evidence that they show greater learning (more plasticity) than adults given matched input, although results are mixed. However, no study has directly compared the effectiveness of high versus low talker variability in children.MethodsNative Greek-speaking eight-year-olds (N = 52), and adults (N = 41) were exposed to the English /i/-/ɪ/ contrast in 10 training sessions through a computerized word-learning game. Pre- and post-training tests examined discrimination of the contrast as well as lexical learning. Participants were randomly assigned to high (four talkers) or low (one talker) variability training conditions.ResultsBoth age groups improved during training, and both improved more while trained with a single talker. Results of a three-interval oddity discrimination test did not show the predicted benefit of high-variability training in either age group. Instead, children showed an effect in the reverse direction—i.e., reliably greater improvements in discrimination following single talker training, even for untrained generalization items, although the result is qualified by (accidental) differences between participant groups at pre-test. Adults showed a numeric advantage for high-variability but were inconsistent with respect to voice and word novelty. In addition, no effect of variability was found for lexical learning. There was no evidence of greater plasticity for phonetic learning in child learners.DiscussionThis paper adds to the handful of studies demonstrating that, like adults, child learners can improve their discrimination of a phonetic contrast via computerized training. There was no evidence of a benefit of training with multiple talkers, either for discrimination or word learning. The results also do not support the findings of greater plasticity in child learners found in a previous paper (Giannakopoulou, Uther & Ylinen, 2013a). We discuss these results in terms of various differences between training and test tasks used in the current work compared with previous literature.

Effectiveness of an intervention program combining direct vocabulary instruction and individualized phonetic training for Mandarin-speaking young children with specific language impairment

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate deficits in vocabulary development and novel word learning process, which have been proposed to stem from their speech perception and phonological processing deficits. In this study, we designed an intervention program combining small-group direct vocabulary instruction and individualized phonetic training computer program. Twenty-five 5- to 7-year-old children with SLI participated in the study, and another 15 children with SLI served as control group. All participants in the experimental group attended 50-minutes direct vocabulary instruction class with interactive activities for ten weeks. The phonetic training computer games included AX discrimination and identification tasks of Mandarin consonant and lexical tones minimal pairs presented in single word and sentence levels. Children were asked to play the phonetic training games at least 30 minutes a week at home and encouraged to run more if they prefer. Results showed that children in the experimental group performed better than control group in the post test, including receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge. In addition, there was a correlation between the gain in the post test and the time spent in the phonetic training game. The result suggests the vocabulary intervention programs incorporated with speech perception training promote children’s vocabulary abilities.

Ab initio perceptual learning of foreign language sounds: Spanish consonant acquisition by Chinese learners

High-variability phonetic training is effective in the acquisition of foreign language sounds. Previous studies have largely focused on small sets of contrasts, and have not controlled for the quantity of prior or simultaneous exposure to new sounds. The current study examined the effectiveness of phonetic training in full-inventory foreign language consonant acquisition by listeners with no previous exposure to the language. Chinese adult listeners underwent an intensive training programme, bracketed by tests that measured both assimilation of foreign sounds to native categories, and foreign category identification rates and confusions. Very rapid learning was evident in the results, with initial misidentification rates halving by the time of the mid-test, and continuing to fall in subsequent training sessions. Changes as a result of training in perceptual assimilation together with improved identifications and reduced response dispersion suggest an expansion of listeners’ native categories to accommodate the foreign sounds and an incipient process of foreign language category formation.

Improving ASL fingerspelling comprehension in L2 learners with explicit phonetic instruction

Students acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language (L2) struggle with fingerspelling comprehension more than skilled signers. These L2 learners might be attempting to perceive and comprehend fingerspelling in a way that is different from native signers, which could negatively impact their ability to comprehend fingerspelling. This could be related to improper weighting of cues that skilled signers use to identify fingerspelled utterances. Improper cue-weighting in spoken language learners has been ameliorated through explicit phonetic instruction, but this method of teaching has yet to be applied to learners of a language in a new modality (M2 learners). The present study assesses this prospect. Eighteen university students in their third-semester of ASL were divided into two groups; one received explicit phonetic training, and the other received implicit training on fingerspelling. Data from a fingerspelling comprehension test, with two experimental conditions and a control, were submitted to a mixed effects logistic regression. This revealed a significant improvement from the pre-test to post-test by students who received the explicit training. Results indicate that even short exposure to explicit phonetic instruction significantly improves participants’ ability to understand fingerspelling, suggesting that ASL curricula should include this type of instruction to improve students’ fingerspelling comprehension abilities.

Das Hör- und Aussprachetraining in einer mehrsprachigen Umgebung: Die Ausspracheschulung in Algerien als Beispiel

Listening and Pronunciation Instruction in a Multilingual Context: Pronunciation training in Algeria as a case study
 Training related to pronunciation in a multilingual environment is increasingly important and remains topical. Social developments and resulting changes make the main reason. In this article, multilingualism and training in the field of pronunciation are the main avenues of exploration. I consider it important to emphasize the impact of phonetic training on multilingualism characterizing Algerians who learn Deutsch as a foreign language. This analysis also attempts to deal with the aspect related to the means likely to reduce phonetic difficulties in the context of teaching/learning of Deutsch as a foreign language in an Algerian context. For all of the reasons mentioned in this article regarding the influence of the source languages on the pronunciation of Algerian learners of German, it is necessary for teachers to take appropriate measures with regard to the selection of appropriate pronunciation exercises and other adequately planned activities for pronunciation instruction. Another basic requirement for teachers is that they should adhere to the standard pronunciation rules when communicating with their learners. Competent teachers are and remain the best role models. They should not only have sufficient phonetic, phonological and prosodic knowledge of German and speech training skills, but their correct pronunciation should serve as a model for learners. In Algeria, teachers should have in-depth knowledge of the phonetic formation of the source languages (Algerian, Arabic, French, Berber, English). They should identify their learners' interference and difficulties arising from source and target phonetic pronunciation.