Article published In:
Journal of Second Language PronunciationVol. 9:1 (2023) ► pp.71–102
Explicit pronunciation instruction in the second language classroom
An acoustic analysis of German final devoicing
The present study uses an acoustic analysis to examine the effects of implicit and explicit pronunciation
instruction on the acquisition of German final devoicing in the L2 classroom. Twenty-nine English-speaking L2 learners of German
at a North American university were assigned to an implicit or explicit condition. Learner speech samples were recorded, following
a pre/post/delayed-post-test design. Four acoustic correlates of final and medial obstruent voicing were analyzed to establish the
degree to which underlyingly voiced word-final stops were phonetically devoiced. Results indicate that learners in the explicit
condition significantly outperformed learners in the implicit condition, with all four acoustic measures signaling significantly
greater word-final devoicing by the post-test in the explicit condition. Orthography, declarative knowledge, and level of
awareness are hypothesized as factors that influenced the acquisition process. The study calls for additional acoustic work on the
effects of different instructional practices on German L2 pronunciation.
Article outline
- 1.Literature review
- 1.1Pronunciation instruction
- 1.2German final devoicing
- 1.3Acoustic properties
- 1.4Research question
- 2.Materials and methods
- 2.1Participants
- 2.2Procedure
- 2.3Stimuli
- 2.4Data analysis
- 2.5Intervention
- 3.Results
- 3.1Final devoicing
- 3.1.1Closure duration
- 3.1.2Release duration
- 3.1.3Preceding vowel duration
- 3.1.4Voicing into closure
- 3.1Final devoicing
- 4.Discussion
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Stratton, James M.
2023. Implicit and explicit instruction in the second language classroom: A study of learner preferences in higher education. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German 56:2 ► pp. 103 ff. 
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