Article published In:
Journal of Second Language PronunciationVol. 8:1 (2022) ► pp.95–115
Phonetic listen-and-repeat training alters 6–7-year-old children’s non-native vowel contrast production after one training session
The present study investigated children’s ability to learn to produce a non-native vowel contrast through a listen-and-repeat training method that is traditionally used in foreign language classrooms. Sixteen Finnish preschoolers (aged 6–7 years) were tested. The stimuli were two semi-synthetic pseudo words with the familiar vowel /y/ and the novel vowel /ʉ/ embedded in the first syllable. The procedure included four training and four recording sessions on two consecutive days. The vowels produced by the children were acoustically analyzed to obtain the average values of the first and second formant. The results showed that the participants changed their production of /ʉ/ towards the acoustic model after the first training and the change remained throughout the experiment. Our findings suggest 6–7-year-old children learn to produce a non-native vowel contrast even with limited L2 sound exposure in a listen-and-repeat training setting.
Keywords: children, pronunciation, phonetic training, production training, second language learning, vowels
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.AOL and second language sound learning
- 2.1Phonetic studies on child and adult learners in naturalistic L2 environments and instructed learning settings
- 2.2Child and adult learners in phonetic L2 training studies
- 3.Material and methods
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Stimuli
- 3.3Procedure
- 3.4Analysis
- 4.Results
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
-
References
References
Alku, P., Tiitinen, H., & Näätänen, R.
(1999) A
method for generating natural-sounding speech stimuli for cognitive brain research. Clinical
Neurophysiology: Official Journal of the International Federation of Clinical
Neurophysiology,
110
(8), 1329–1333. 
Baigorri, M., Campanelli, L., & Levy, E. S.
(2019) Perception
of American–English vowels by early and late Spanish–English bilinguals. Language and Speech;
Lang
Speech,
62
(4), 002383091880693–700.
Best, C. T.
(1994) The
emergence of native-language phonological influences in infants: A perceptual assimilation
model. In J. C. Goodman, & H. C. Nusbaum (Eds.), The
development of speech perception: The transition from speech sounds to spoken
words (pp. 167–224). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
(1995) A
direct-realist view of cross-language speech perception. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech
perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language speech
research (pp. 171–206) York Press, Baltimore.
Best, C. T., & Strange, W.
(1992) Effects
of phonological and phonetic factors on cross-language perception of approximants. Journal of
Phonetics,
20
1, 305–330.
Best, C. T., & Tyler, M.
(2007) Nonnative
and second-language speech perception. In O. Bohn, & M. J. Munro (Eds.), Language
experience in second language speech learning: In honour of James Emil
Flege (pp. 13–34). Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Boersma, P. & Weenink, D.
(2020) Praat:
doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version
6.0.43.
Darcy, I., & Krüger, F.
(2012) Vowel
perception and production in turkish children acquiring L2 german
Flege, J. E.
(2009) Give
input a chance! In T. Piske & M. Young-Scholten (Eds.), Input
matters in
SLA (pp.175–190). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
(1987) The
production of ”new” and ”similar” phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence
classification. Journal of
Phonetics,
15
1, 47–65.
(1995) Second
language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech
perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language
research (pp. 229–273) Timonium, MD; York Press.
(1999) The
relation between L2 production and perception. Paper presented at
the
Proceedings of the XIVth International Congress of Phonetics
Sciences
, 1273–1276.
Flege, J. E., & Bohn, O.
(2021) The
revised speech learning model (SLM-r). In R. Wayland (Ed.), Second
language speech learning: Theoretical and empirical
progress (pp. 3–83). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Flege, J. E., MacKay, I. R., & Meador, D.
(1999) Native
Italian speakers’ perception and production of English vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical
Society of
America,
106
(5), 2973–2987.
Flege, J. E., Munro, M. J., & MacKay, I. R. A.
(1995) Factors
affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language. The Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America,
97
(5 Pt
1), 3125–3134.
Flege, J. E., Yeni-Komshian, G. H., & Liu, S.
(1999) Age
constraints on second-language acquisition. Journal of Memory and
Language,
41
(1), 78–104.
Giannakopoulou, A., Uther, M., & Ylinen, S.
(2013) Enhanced
plasticity in spoken language acquisition for child learners: Evidence from phonetic training studies in child and adult
learners of English. Child Language Teaching and
Therapy,
29
(2), 201–218.
Heeren, W. F. L., & Schouten, M. E. H.
(2010) Perceptual
development of the Finnish /t-t:/ Distinction in Dutch 12-year-old children: A training
study. Journal of
Phonetics,
38
1, 594–603.
(2008) Perceptual
development of phoneme contrasts: How sensitivity changes along acoustic dimensions that contrast phoneme
categories. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America,
124
(4), 2291–2302.
Immonen, K. & Peltola, M. S.
(2018) Finnish
Children Producing English Vowels – Studying in an English Immersion Class Affects Vowel
Production. Journal of Language Teaching and
Research,
9
(1), 27–33.
Kewley-Port, D., & Watson, C. S.
(1994) Formant-frequency
discrimination for isolated English vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America,
95
(1), 485–496.
Kopečková, R., Dimroth, C., & Gut, U.
(2019) Children’s
and adults’ initial phonological acquisition of a foreign language. Journal of Second Language
Pronunciation,
5
(3), 374–401.
Kuhl, P. K.
(1991) Human
adults and human infants show a ”perceptual magnet effect” for the prototypes of speech categories, monkeys do
not. Perception &
Psychophysics,
50
(2), 93–107.
Kuhl, P. K., Conboy, B. T., Coffey-Corina, S., Padden, D., Rivera-Gaxiola, M., & Nelson, T.
(2008) Phonetic
learning as a pathway to language: New data and native language magnet theory expanded
(NLM-e). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological
Sciences,
363
(1493), 979–1000.
Kuhl, P. K., Williams, K. A., & et al.
(1992) Linguistic
experience alters phonetic perception in infants by 6 months of
age. Science,
255
(5044), 606–608.
Morales Reyes, A., Arechabaleta-Regulez, B., & Montrul, S.
(2017) The
acquisition of rhotics by child L2 and L3 learners. Journal of Second Language
Pronunciation,
3
(2), 242–266.
Oh, G. E., Guion-Anderson, S., Aoyama, K., Flege, J. E., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Yamada, T.
(2011) A
one-year longitudinal study of English and Japanese vowel production by Japanese adults and children in an English-speaking
setting. Journal of
Phonetics,
39
(2), 156–167.
Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Population structure
[e-publication]
. ISSN=1797-5395 2018, Appendix
table 1. Population according to language
1980–2018. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.4.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/vaerak/2018/vaerak_2018_2019-03-29_tau_001_en.html
Peltola, K. U., Rautaoja, T., Alku, P., & Peltola, M. S.
(2017) Adult
learners and a one-day production training – small changes but the native language sound system
prevails. Journal of Language Teaching and
Research
8
(1), 1–7.
Peltola, K. U., Tamminen, H., Alku, P., Kujala, T., & Peltola, M. S.
(2020) Motoric
training alters speech sound perception and production – active listening training does not lead into learning
outcomes. Journal of Language Teaching and
Research
11
(1), 10–16.
Peltola, M. S., Tamminen, H., Salonen, L., Toivonen, H., Kujala, T., & Näätänen, R.
(2010) Two
languages–one brain. Paper presented at the
Third ISCA
Workshop on Experimental
Linguistics
, 145–148.
Peltola, M. S., Tamminen, H., Toivonen, H., Kujala, T., & Näätänen, R.
(2012) Different
kinds of bilinguals – different kinds of brains: The neural organisation of two languages in one
brain. Brain and
Language,
121
(3), 261–266.
Pyykkö, R.
(2017) Monikielisyys
vahvuudeksi. Selvitys Suomen kielivarannon tilasta ja tasosta. Publications of the Ministry of
Education and Culture 2017:51. Helsinki.
Taimi, L., Jähi, K., Alku, P., & Peltola, M. S.
(2014) Children
learning a non-native vowel – the effect of a two-day production training. Journal of Language
Teaching and
Research
5
(6), 1229–1235.
Tamminen, H., Peltola, M. S., Toivonen, H., Kujala, T., & Näätänen, R.
(2013) Phonological
processing differences in bilinguals and monolinguals. International Journal of
Psychophysiology,
87
(1), 8–13.
Tsukada, K., Birdsong, D., Bialystok, E., Mack, M., Sung, H., & Flege, J. E.
(2005) A
developmental study of English vowel production and perception by native Korean adults and
children. Journal of
Phonetics,
33
(3), 263–290.
Tyler, M. D.
(2019) PAM-L2
and phonological category acquisition in the foreign language
classroom. In A. M. Nyvad, M. Hejná, A. Højen, A. Bothe Jespersen & M. Hjortshøj Sørensen (Eds.), A
sound approach to language Matters – In honor of Ocke-Schwen
Bohn (pp. 607–630). Aarhus: Dept, of English, School of Communication & Culture, Aarhus University.