The effectiveness of real-time ultrasound visual feedback on tongue movements in L2 pronunciation training

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Kocjančič Antolík ◽  
Claire Pillot-Loiseau ◽  
Takeki Kamiyama
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
The Other ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Tongue Movements ◽  
L2 Pronunciation

Abstract The purpose of this study was to test the usability of ultrasound as a visual feedback tool in L2 pronunciation training. Six Japanese-speaking learners, aged 28–33 years, participating in a course in French phonetics for L2 learners, took part in the study. Four of them received three individual 45-minute lessons of ultrasound pronunciation training. The other two participants did not. Articulatory and acoustic data of French isolated /y/ and /u/ and Japanese [ɯ] were recorded before and after the ultrasound training, as well as two months later for the learners receiving the training. The analysis of the articulatory data revealed that three speakers with ultrasound feedback improved in the production of the French vowels, the contrast between them, as well as the contrast between the two French vowels and the Japanese [ɯ], suggesting that ultrasound may be a useful tool in second language pronunciation learning.

Wie Zijn 'Onze' Leerders?

1999 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 87-97
Author(s):  
Anne-Mieke Janssen-van Dieten
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The One

There is an increasing awareness that the number of non-native speakers in the category of 'adult, highly educated, advanced L2-learners' is rapidly increasing. This paper presents an analysis of what it means to teach them a second language - whether it is Dutch or any other second language. It is argued that, on the one hand, conceptions about language learning and teaching are insufficiendy known, and that, on the other hand, there are many widespread misconceptions that prevent language teachers from catering adequately for people's actual communicative needs, and from providing tailor-made solutions to these problems.

The Use of Visual Feedback to Elicit Correct /r/

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda I. Shuster ◽  
Dennis M. Ruscello ◽  
Amy R. Toth
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Type Feedback

Biofeedback in the form of the visual display from the monitor of a real-time spectrograph was presented to a 10-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl who had been unable to attain correct production of /r/ despite years of treatment. Both perceptual ratings and acoustic measures were made of the clients' productions of /r/ before and after treatment with the spectrograph. The results indicated that children and adolescents can use this type feedback to attain correct production of /r/ when other methods have failed. Potential reasons for the success of this approach are discussed.

scholarly journals “When being specific is not enough”: Discrepancies between L2 learners’ perception of definiteness and its linguistic definition

2021 ◽  
pp. 123-148
Author(s):  
Sugene Kim
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Semantic Context ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Korean College Students ◽  
English Articles

This paper explores the sources of difficulties that second language (L2) learners encounter when using English articles. Eighty-four Korean college students completed a forced-choice elicitation task before and after receiving instruction on article use and provided written accounts of article choices. The analysis of the task performance and written accounts indicated the participants’ noticeable tendency to prioritize specificity over definiteness, resulting in the overuse of the with specific indefinites. Not infrequently, the participants estimated a “nonspecificity hierarchy” for nonspecific definites, often leading to the infelicitous use of a(n). The overuse of the with modified noun phrases suggests that L2 learners attempt to construe semantic context (i.e., ±definite) on the basis of the syntactic structure. Furthermore, the participants’ correct use of a(n) for singular count indefinites sometimes stemmed from assuming the number of a target noun to be single rather than considering its multiple existence and, thus, its indefinite nature. These findings underline the necessity of teaching the specificity feature to indicate to learners that (1) English articles are prototypical realizations of encoding definiteness, which requires the mutual identifiability of a unique referent, and (2) specificity, which presupposes identifiability assumed by the writer/speaker alone, is not marked by articles in English.

Korean L2 learners’ perception and production of Vietnamese tones

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Đích Mục Đào ◽  
Anh-Thư T. Nguyễn
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Error Pattern ◽  
Lexical Tones ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Korean Phonology ◽  
Vietnamese Speakers

Abstract This study investigated the production and perception of Vietnamese tones by Korean second language (L2) learners [n = 11], comparing their performance in an Imitation task to that in Identification and Read-Aloud tasks. The results showed that the Imitation task was generally easier for Korean speakers than the Identification and Read-Aloud tasks, suggesting that imitation was performed without some of the skills required by the other two tasks. The result on tonal F0 range and speakers’ tonal range showed that the Korean leaners have significantly narrower tonal F0 range than control Vietnamese speakers [n = 11]. The results of error pattern analysis and tonal transcription in this study also suggested the effects of phonetic realizations of lexical tones in Vietnamese that are in interaction with language transfer from Korean phonology.

SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Kiwako Ito ◽  
Wynne Wong
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Tracking Task ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Processing Instruction ◽  
Less Is More ◽  
Selection Accuracy ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Causative Structure

Abstract Effects of phonetically variable input (PVI) for processing instruction (PI) training and the number of training items were tested with a picture-selection eye-tracking task. Intermediate second language (L2) learners of French (n = 174) were tested before and after they received either a short (24 items), medium (48), or long (96) training on the causative structure with either single- or multivoice input. PI improved picture-selection accuracy from about 10% to above 50% regardless of the training size. Eye-tracking data showed a reduction in looks to the incorrect picture only after the short and medium training: it surfaced regardless of voice variability after the short training, whereas multivoice training led to a greater reduction after the medium training. Long training did not yield a reliable reduction of incorrect looks regardless of voice variability. Taken together, PVI does not hinder L2 syntactic learning. Learners may benefit more from a relatively shorter training with PVI.

Relevance Theory and the in second language acquisition

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vlad Žegarac
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The One ◽  
Teaching Learning

This article considers the implications of Sperber and Wilson’s (1986/95) Relevance Theory for the acquisition of English the by second language (L2) learners whose first language (L1) does not have an article system. On the one hand, Relevance Theory provides an explicit characterization of the semantics of the, which suggests ways of devising more accurate guidelines for teaching/learning than are available in current textbooks. On the other hand, Relevance Theoretic assumptions about human communication together with some effects of transfer from L1 provide the basis for a number of predictions about the types of L2 learners’ errors in the use of the.I argue that data from previous research (Trenkić, 2002) lend support to these predictions, and I try to show that examples drawn from the data I have collected provide evidence for the view that L2 learning is not influenced only by general pragmatic principles and hypotheses about L2 based on transfer from L1, but that learners also devise and test tacit hypotheses which are idiosyncratic to them.

Use of Visual Feedback to Treat Negative Intraoral Air Pressures of Preschoolers With Cochlear Implants

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen B. Higgins ◽  
Elizabeth A. McCleary ◽  
Laura Schulte
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
The Other ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Before And After

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if negative intraoral air pressures (−P o ) produced by young deaf children can be treated effectively with visual feedback. We used two forms of visual feedback. One was a display of the P o signal on an oscilloscope, and the other was movement of cellophane streamers placed in front of the children’s mouths. Participants were two 5-year-old boys who had been using cochlear implants (CIs) for less than 6 months. Both children were congenitally deafened and had very limited speech production and perception skills. In addition to frequent usage of −P o , both children exhibited deviant phonatory behaviors, so phonatory goals were incorporated into treatment. The magnitude and direction of P o was monitored, as well as fundamental frequency and electroglottograph cycle width. Data were collected at baseline, before and after treatment sessions, and 7 weeks after termination of treatment. One child responded well to treatment of −P o with both forms of visual feedback, and progress was maintained at follow-up. For the other child, +P o occurred more frequently as the study progressed, and he rarely produced −P o by the end of the investigation. However, because changes were evident in baseline as well as during treatment, it is difficult to attribute his more frequent use of +P o specifically to treatment. The phonation of the two children changed in ways that were consistent with their phonatory goals, although the degree of change was not always significant. Change was more evident for phonatory behaviors that could be shaped with visual feedback. Although both children exhibited some undesirable speech/voice behaviors in response to visual feedback, there was no evidence of long-lasting mislearning. Although our data are limited, it appears that treatment of −P o can be efficacious for some young children with CIs, even those with very poor speech perception and speech production skills. Further, treatment of −P o can be incorporated effectively with other speech production goals.

scholarly journals How does longitudinal interaction promote second language speech learning? Roles of learner experience and proficiency levels

2019 ◽  
pp. 026765831988498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuya Saito ◽  
Shungo Suzuki ◽  
Tomoko Oyama ◽  
Yuka Akiyama
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Speech Learning

This study examined how longitudinal interaction impacts the development of second language (L2) oral proficiency in relation to learners’ different experience and proficiency levels. Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) participated in weekly conversation exchanges with native speakers (NSs) in the USA via videoconferencing tools over one academic semester (12 weeks). The participants’ spontaneous speech, elicited from a story telling task before and after the treatment, was analysed via a set of linguistic measures. In line with the componential view of L2 oral proficiency and development, our results hinted L2 learners’ experience and proficiency levels as a mediating factor for determining the link between interaction and its impact on different dimensions of L2 speech learning. While the longitudinal interaction equally improved the participants’ grammatical complexity and articulation rate – a fundamental component for defining L2 oral proficiency – the development of less experienced/proficient learners was observed across a wide range of lexicogrammar and fluency features (lexical appropriateness/richness, grammatical accuracy, pause ratio). It was only more experienced/proficient learners that significantly enhanced phonological accuracies (segmentals, word stress) which are thought to gradually develop in the later stages of L2 speech learning. These findings add another piece of evidence for the differential effects of long-term interaction relative to L2 learners’ developmental stages.

scholarly journals Processing tense/aspect-agreement violations on-line in the second language: A self-paced reading study with French and German L2 learners of English

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Roberts ◽  
Sarah Ann Liszka
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Processing Cost ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
Reading Experiment

In this article, we report the results of a self-paced reading experiment designed to investigate the question of whether or not advanced French and German learners of English as a second language (L2) are sensitive to tense/aspect mismatches between a fronted temporal adverbial and the inflected verb that follows (e.g. * Last week, James has gone swimming every day) in their on-line comprehension. The L2 learners were equally able to distinguish correctly the past simple from the present perfect as measured by a traditional cloze test production task. They were also both able to assess the mismatch items as less acceptable than the match items in an off-line judgment task. Using a self-paced reading task, we investigated whether they could access this knowledge during real-time processing. Despite performing similarly in the explicit tasks, the two learner groups processed the experimental items differently from each other in real time. On-line, only the French L2 learners were sensitive to the mismatch conditions in both the past simple and the present perfect contexts, whereas the German L2 learners did not show a processing cost at all for either mismatch type. We suggest that the performance differences between the L2 groups can be explained by influences from the learners’ first language (L1): namely, only those whose L1 has grammaticized aspect (French) were sensitive to the tense/aspect violations on-line, and thus could be argued to have implicit knowledge of English tense/aspect distinctions.

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