Second-Language Learners’ Identification of Target-Language Phonemes: A Short-Term Phonetic Training Study

Cebrian, Juli; Carlet, Angélica

doi:10.3138/cmlr.2318

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…aLVEs & MaGRO, 2011;CEBRIaN & CaRLET 2014;COuPER, 2011;RaMÍREz VERDuGO, 2006;RaTO, 2013;saITO, 2015;sILVEIRa, 2004;WREMBEL, 2005). as brought up by silveira and alves (2009), the instructor can have the facilitating role in helping learners to notice details of L2 speech which otherwise may be left unnoticed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brazilian Efl Learners’ Awareness About L2 Phones: Is Mall Pronounced as ‘Mal’?

Souza

2017

Trab. linguist. apl.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this paper was to examine the extent of non-verbalizable knowledge L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of English possess about the segmental inventory of the L2. The study had two aims: i) to determine to what extent L1 BP EFL learners are aware of contrastive and non-contrastive L2 segments, ii) to determine which type of segments present the lowest level of awareness. To the date, little research has been carried out about the non-verbalizable aspect of L2 phonological awareness, most studies having relied on participants' verbalization of the acquired knowledge (e.g., KENNEDY & TROFIMOVICH, 2010;WREMBEL, 2011). Whereas language learners are frequently taught grammar explicitly, pronunciation of the L2 is rarely addressed in the foreign language classroom. Moreover, phonology is in nature less susceptible to conscious processing than other aspects of L2 learning, making the noticing, and especially the explicit explanation, of phonological aspects difficult. Nevertheless, high L2 phonological awareness is beneficial for L2 pronunciation (KIVIsTö-DE sOuza, 2015), making its examination a priority in the foreign language classroom context. The participants of the study were 71 advanced EFL learners and 18 native speakers of american English. Participants performed a perception test which presented English segments spoken by native and non-native speakers. The ability to identify pronunciation deviations in the non-native speaker trials was taken as a measure for phonological awareness. The results showed that the L1 BP participants manifested a significantly lower sensitivity to English segmental phonology than the native English speakers (F[1, 87] = 40.56, p <.001, η 2 =.31). Pronunciation deviations involving consonants were identified to the greatest extent (52%), whereas the trials involving short-lag VOTs were identified the poorest (33%). The results reveal a need for explicit pronunciation instruction and the employment of consciousnessraising activities in the Brazilian EFL classroom. Keywords: Phonological awareness; L2 speech learning; Pronunciation instruction. RESUMO

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brazilian Efl Learners’ Awareness About L2 Phones: Is Mall Pronounced as ‘Mal’?

Souza

2017

Trab. linguist. apl.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is especially justified as previous research indicates that consciousness-raising activities, such as explicit teaching, for instance, are extremely beneficial for L2 speech development (e.g. ALVES; MAGRO, 2011;CEBRIAN;CARLET 2014;COUPER, 2011;RATO, 2013;SAITO;WU, 2014).…”

Section: Stress Placement Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress Placement and Unstressd Vowel Production in English Neutral Suffixes by Brazilian Learners

Bueno

Silveira

Gonçalves

et al. 2017

matraga

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examined the production of unstressed vowels by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of English. More specifically, the aim was to examine the acoustic characteristics of the interlanguage unstressed vowels and to determine whether the language learners' stress assignment in cognate words was targetlike or not. The participants were 20 L1 BP learners of English and two native English speakers who provided the baseline data. Participants read lists of sentences including polysyllabic cognate words with the neutral suffixes "-able" and "-al" (e.g. 'respectable', 'radical'). Participants' productions were acoustically and auditorily analysed and the F1, F2 and duration values measured. The results showed that the L1 BP participants produced a reduced vowel /ə/ with similar acoustic characteristics to the L1 English speakers, differentiating it from /ʌ/ in terms of vowel quality and duration. Despite being able to distinguish between the unstressed and the stressed central vowels, the correct assignment of stress in polysyllabic cognates was challenging for the L1 BP informants. A possible explanation for the non-target-like stress assignment is negative transfer from the L1, in which one of the target suffixes, "-al" (e.g. 'tropical'), attracts stress, contrary to the L2.

show abstract

“…What is clear from previous research is that the employment of activities used to raise L2 learners' awareness about the target language is beneficial in making aspects of L2 phonology more salient for language learners (ALVES; MAGRO, 2011;CEBRIAN;CARLET 2014;COUPER, 2011;RATO, 2013;SAITO;WU, 2014;WREMBEL, 2005). With lowerlevel learners, the employment of consciousness-raising activities, such as explicit teaching or the employment of enhanced input, might be especially beneficial given that beginners first need to develop their awareness of L2 phonotactics.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between phonotactic awareness and pronunciation in adult second language learners

Souza

2017

Rev. bras. linguist. apl.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examined to what extent L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) EFL learners are aware of L2 phonotactics and whether there would be a relationship between L2 phonotactic awareness and L2 pronunciation accuracy. The language learners were tested regarding their awareness of L2 onset consonant clusters with a lexical decision task presenting nonword stimuli with legal and illegal onset clusters. L2 pronunciation was measured with a Foreign Accent Rating Task. The results showed that L1 BP participants showed a high awareness concerning L2 phonotactics, not differing from L1 English speakers, t(86)=.20, p =.83. Furthermore, high phonotactic awareness was found to be related to higher accuracy in L2 pronunciation (r= -.46, p <.001). The results suggest that phonotactics should be taught in foreign language classrooms since increasing learners' awareness might be beneficial for the accuracy of their L2 pronunciation. KEYWORDS: phonological awareness; phonotactic awareness; L2 pronunciation; consonant clusters. RESUMO:Este artigo examinou o grau de consciência fonotática em LE de aprendizes brasileiros de inglês e se a consciência fonotática em LE estaria positivamente relacionada à pronúncia em LE. Para medir a consciência sobre os clusters inicias da LE, os participantes completaram uma tarefa de decisão lexical que apresentava pseudopalavras com clusters possíveis e impossíveis. A * hanna.kivistodesouza@gmail.com 1 This manuscript forms part of the author's doctoral research conducted under the advisory guidance of Dr. Joan Carles Mora at the University of Barcelona (KIVISTÖ-DE SOUZA, 2015) and an earlier version of it was presented at the 8 th International Conference on Second Language Speech, New Sounds, in Aarhus, Denmark (June, 2016 (r= -.46, p<.001). Os resultados revelam a importância do ensino de fonotática na sala de aula estrangeira, uma vez que o aumento dessa consciência nos alunos poderia vir a ser benéfico para a pronúncia em LE.

show abstract

Second-Language Learners’ Identification of Target-Language Phonemes: A Short-Term Phonetic Training Study

Cited by 19 publications

References 25 publications

Brazilian Efl Learners’ Awareness About L2 Phones: Is Mall Pronounced as ‘Mal’?

Brazilian Efl Learners’ Awareness About L2 Phones: Is Mall Pronounced as ‘Mal’?

Stress Placement and Unstressd Vowel Production in English Neutral Suffixes by Brazilian Learners

The relationship between phonotactic awareness and pronunciation in adult second language learners

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About