Chan, A.Y. (2014). The perception and production of English speech sounds by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong. Linguistics, 52(1). DOI:10.1515/ling-2013-0056 Flege, James E. & Ian R. A. MacKay. (2004). Perceiving vowels in a second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 26. 1–34. Huensch, A., & Tremblay, A. (2015). Effects of perceptual phonetic training on the […]
Continue reading →Ultimately, pronunciation and speech perception are the most difficult aspects of a second language to learn. Past research has shown that some training methods can be used to aid the speech production and perception of second language learners, although they have varying outcomes. It is clear that speech perception and production do not use identical […]
Continue reading →Although much research has been done in this field, there are several research gaps that have yet to be explored. For instance, studies have yet to quantify how much the L1 influences L2 speech perception and production, and if typological distance between the L1 and L2 affects the ease of acquiring L2 speech perception and […]
Continue reading →As the studies mentioned above have demonstrated, various methods of training have teaching L2 sounds in chunks or carried phrases to complement the input of words in isolation, so that L2 learners can be made aware of coarticulation and learn linking between words. For instance, the French phrase “les amis” /lezami/ is pronounced as “les” […]
Continue reading →Visual feedback was found to be effective in improving production of non-native vowels (Kartushina et al., 2015). However, subjects had problems producing certain target vowels that were perceived to be in the same category in their native language. There was also an overall improvement in non-native vowel perception due to the production training, which heightened […]
Continue reading →Production Training Visual Feedback Visualizing differences in sound categories found in an L2 can help learners adapt to native pronunciations. Learners’ L2 speech production was recorded and analyzed according to frequency. Consonants and vowels have particular acoustic properties, corresponding to what is known as formants, which are concentrations “of acoustic energy around a particular frequency […]
Continue reading →For many learners of a second language, multiple factors complicate learning the oral component of a new language. Firstly, they have to learn how to segment speech that they hear into phrases and words, so that they can decode what these mean. This is not a simple task, as speech is in fact a continuous […]
Continue reading →When acquiring a second language (L2), a learner will be bound to face many difficulties. These difficulties include learning the vocabulary of the target language (the language being learned), getting acquainted with L2 grammatical rules, and of course, understanding and producing L2 speech. This is especially important, as language is usually acquired for communication, thus, […]
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