Effects of online repetition practice on promoting mora awareness: Focusing on vowel length

Japanese learners often have a difficult time in acquiring both accurate perception and production of Japanese special moras. Since errors on Japanese special moras can change the meaning of words, it is important to promote mora awareness in an early stage of the learners\u27 language learning process. However, pronunciation practice including that on special moras is often dismissed in the classroom due to time constraints and other reasons. That is why an online system, available outside the class time, could be beneficial in promoting students\u27 awareness of special moras. This study investigates the effectiveness of online listen-and-repeat practice to promote learners\u27 awareness of special moras, focusing on long vowel production. The effectiveness of online practice is compared to when the practice is done in a classroom setting. In this research, 20 words containing long vowels and five fillers were selected. The subjects were 27 first-year Japanese students and were randomly divided in three groups; 1) Online Audio-Only group, 2) Online Audio-Visual group, and 3) In-Class Choral Repetition group. All three groups received a pretest, listen-and-repeat practice, a posttest, and a delayed posttest.^ While the two training groups were given listen-and-repeat online practice with and without visual cues, the In-Class group received a classroom-style presentation and practice of the same set of words. The visual cue in this research modeled a karaoke system, where each mora in the word appears at the same time as that mora is being pronounced, and this system was designed so that learners will notice that the length of a long vowel is the same as any other mora.^ Results indicated significant improvement on vowel duration accuracy for both groups that received listen-and-repeat practice in an online self-study environment, while participants who practiced in a classroom setting did not. However, although the descriptive statistics showed the greatest improvement for those who received the Audio-Visual treatment, statistical analysis did not show significant difference in the participants\u27 improvement among the treatment types. Therefore, future studies are needed to further investigate the effectiveness of different input modalities that could be used with listen-and-repeat practice

The acquisition of English L2 prosody by Italian native speakers: experimental data and pedagogical implications

This paper investigates Yes-No question intonation patterns in English L2, Italian L1, and English L1. The aim is to test the hypothesis that L2 learners may show different acquisition strategies for different dimensions of intonation, and particularly the phonological and phonetic components. The study analyses the nuclear intonation contours of 4 target English words and 4 comparable Italian words consisting of sonorant segments, stressed on the semi-final or final syllable, and occurring in Yes-No questions in sentence-final position (e.g., Will you attend the memorial?, Hai sentito la Melania?). The words were contained in mini-dialogues of question-answer pairs, and read 5 times by 4 Italian speakers (Padova area, North-East Italy) and 3 English female speakers (London area, UK). The results show that: 1) different intonation patterns may be used to realize the same grammatical function; 2) different developmental processes are at work, including transfer of L1 categories and the acquisition of L2 phonological categories. These results suggest that the phonetic dimension of L2 intonation may be more difficult to learn than the phonological one

DDSupport: Language Learning Support System that Displays Differences and Distances from Model Speech

When beginners learn to speak a non-native language, it is difficult for them to judge for themselves whether they are speaking well. Therefore, computer-assisted pronunciation training systems are used to detect learner mispronunciations. These systems typically compare the user's speech with that of a specific native speaker as a model in units of rhythm, phonemes, or words and calculate the differences. However, they require extensive speech data with detailed annotations or can only compare with one specific native speaker. To overcome these problems, we propose a new language learning support system that calculates speech scores and detects mispronunciations by beginners based on a small amount of unannotated speech data without comparison to a specific person. The proposed system uses deep learning--based speech processing to display the pronunciation score of the learner's speech and the difference/distance between the learner's and a group of models' pronunciation in an intuitively visual manner. Learners can gradually improve their pronunciation by eliminating differences and shortening the distance from the model until they become sufficiently proficient. Furthermore, since the pronunciation score and difference/distance are not calculated compared to specific sentences of a particular model, users are free to study the sentences they wish to study. We also built an application to help non-native speakers learn English and confirmed that it can improve users' speech intelligibility

A real-time articulatory visual feedback approach with target presentation for second language pronunciation learning

International audienceArticulatory information can support learning or remediating pronunciation of a second language (L2). This paper describes an electromagnetic articulometer-based visual-feedback approach using an articulatory target presented in real-time to facilitate L2 pronunciation learning. This approach trains learners to adjust articulatory positions to match targets for a L2 vowel estimated from productions of vowels that overlap in both L1 and L2. Training of Japanese learners for the American English vowel /ae/ that included visual training improved its pronunciation regardless of whether audio training was also included. Articulatory visual feedback is shown to be an effective method for facilitating L2 pronunciation learning

EFFECTS OF ONLINE ORAL PRACTICE ON JAPANESE PITCH ACCENTUATION ACQUISITION

Even though there is a constant learners\u27 need for pronunciation instruction in a Japanese language classroom, some teachers are hesitant to include pronunciation instruction due to time constrains or lack of knowledge on how to teach pronunciation. These problems occur due to the fact that pronunciation instructions were mostly conducted in classrooms. Computer-Assisted Language Learning is a great way to overcome these problems since learners can practice pronunciation through an online program outside of class. For this reason, this study was conducted outside of class using an online program. This research investigated the effectiveness of online oral practice on Japanese pitch accentuation and also, out of the three input methods implemented in the study, which input method enhances acquisition the most. Subjects were 171 first-year Japanese students and were divided into three treatment groups and a control group. Each treatment group received different treatments on pitch accentuation: A) pitch mark + text (hiragana) + video, B) text (hiragana) + video, C) video only. The treatment groups received a pretest, pitch accent practice, a posttest, and a delayed posttest. The control group also received a pretest, vocabulary practice unrelated to pitch accent, a posttest, and a delayed posttest. Also, students were asked to participate in a survey. The present research found that all of the online oral practice treatments were effective for acquiring correct pitch accentuation. It also revealed that having visual aids (pitch mark + text) on the screen in addition to video input significantly helped learners to acquire the accents better and retain them longer than not having any visual information. According to the survey, 95.19% of the participants perceived that pitch accent instruction was useful

Estoñol, a computer-assisted pronunciation training tool for Spanish L1 speakers to improve the pronunciation and perception of Estonian vowels

Over the past few years the number of online language teaching materials for non-native speakers of Estonian has increased. However, they focus mainly on vocabulary and pay little attention to pronunciation. In this study we introduce a computerassisted pronunciation training tool, Estoñol, developed to help native speakers of Spanish to train their perception and production of Estonian vowels. The tool’s training program involves seven vowel contrasts, /i-y/, /u-y/, /ɑ-o/, /ɑ-æ/, /e-æ/, /o-ø/, and /o-ɤ/, which have proven to be difficult for native speakers of Spanish. The training activities include theoretical videos and four training modes (exposure, discrimination, pronunciation, and mixed) in every lesson. The tool is integrated into a pre/post-test design experiment with native speakers of Spanish and Estonian to assess the language learners’ perception and production improvement. It is expected that the tool will have a positive effect on the results, as has been shown in previous studies using similar methodology. Kokkuvõte. Katrin Leppik ja Cristian Tejedor-García: Estoñol, mobiilirakendus hispaania emakeelega eesti keele õppijatele vokaalide häälduse ja taju treenimiseks. Eesti keele õppimiseks on loodud mitmeid e-kursusi ja mobiilirakendusi, kuid need keskenduvad peamiselt sõnavara ja gram matika õpetamisele ning pööravad väga vähe tähelepanu hääldusele. Eesti keele häälduse omandamise lihtsustamiseks töötati välja mobiilirakendus Estoñol, mis on mõeldud hispaania emakeelega eesti keele õppijatele. Varasemad uurimused on näidanud, et hispaania emakeelega eesti keele õppijatele valmistab raskusi vokaalide /ɑ, y, ø, æ, ɤ/ hääldamine. Mobiilirakenduse sisu on jagatud seitsmeks peatükiks, kus on võimalik harjutada vokaalipaaride /i-y/, /u-y/, /ɑ-o/, /ɑ-æ/, /e-æ/, /o-ø/, /o-ɤ/ tajumist ja hääldamist. Iga peatükk algab teoreetilise videoga, millele järgnevad taju- ja hääldusharjutused. Mobiilirakenduse mõju hindamiseks keeleõppija hääldusele ja tajule plaanitakse läbi viia eksperiment. Märksõnad: CAPT, eesti keel, hispaania keel, L2, hääldus, taju, vokaalid, Estoño

Pronunciation development and instruction in distance language learning

The goal of this study was to explore how distance language learners’ pronunciation skills develop with and without targeted pronunciation training during their first semester of university language instruction. To this end, a new computer-assisted method of pronunciation instruction was designed, and its effectiveness, as well as learners’ experiences with the method, were assessed. The study was conducted over the course of one semester with 67 distance learners of German. Perception and oral production skills on the word and sentence level were assessed at the beginning and end of the semester for a treatment group that received targeted pronunciation instruction and a control group that did not receive pronunciation instruction, but otherwise followed the same curriculum. The results of the study showed that distance learners’ pronunciation skills did not improve significantly over the course of the semester in the absence of targeted pronunciation training. Results further indicated that learners who received targeted pronunciation training improved significantly from pre- to posttest and significantly outperformed learners in the control group on measures of perception and production accuracy at the end of the semester. These findings suggest that distance language instruction can benefit from including targeted pronunciation training