The role of input in second language oral ability development in foreign language classrooms: a longitudinal study

The current project longitudinally investigated the extent to which first-year Japanese university students developed their second language (L2) oral ability in relation to increased input in foreign language classrooms. Their spontaneous speech was elicited at the beginning, middle and end of one academic year, and then judged by linguistically trained coders for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar qualities. According to the statistical analyses, the total amount of input (operationalized as number of English classes taken and L2 use outside of classrooms) was significantly related to the participants’ quick and immediate development of fluency and lexicogrammar during the first semester. Their pronunciation development was mixed, either subject to continuous change over two academic semesters (for prosody) or limited within the timeframe of the study (for segmentals). Similar to naturalistic L2 speech learning, the findings support the multifaceted role of input in different areas of oral proficiency development in foreign language classrooms

Phonological Level wav2vec2-based Mispronunciation Detection and Diagnosis Method

The automatic identification and analysis of pronunciation errors, known as Mispronunciation Detection and Diagnosis (MDD) plays a crucial role in Computer Aided Pronunciation Learning (CAPL) tools such as Second-Language (L2) learning or speech therapy applications. Existing MDD methods relying on analysing phonemes can only detect categorical errors of phonemes that have an adequate amount of training data to be modelled. With the unpredictable nature of the pronunciation errors of non-native or disordered speakers and the scarcity of training datasets, it is unfeasible to model all types of mispronunciations. Moreover, phoneme-level MDD approaches have a limited ability to provide detailed diagnostic information about the error made. In this paper, we propose a low-level MDD approach based on the detection of speech attribute features. Speech attribute features break down phoneme production into elementary components that are directly related to the articulatory system leading to more formative feedback to the learner. We further propose a multi-label variant of the Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) approach to jointly model the non-mutually exclusive speech attributes using a single model. The pre-trained wav2vec2 model was employed as a core model for the speech attribute detector. The proposed method was applied to L2 speech corpora collected from English learners from different native languages. The proposed speech attribute MDD method was further compared to the traditional phoneme-level MDD and achieved a significantly lower False Acceptance Rate (FAR), False Rejection Rate (FRR), and Diagnostic Error Rate (DER) over all speech attributes compared to the phoneme-level equivalent

English speaking proficiency assessment using speech and electroencephalography signals

In this paper, the English speaking proficiency level of non-native English speakerswas automatically estimated as high, medium, or low performance. For this purpose, the speech of 142 non-native English speakers was recorded and electroencephalography (EEG) signals of 58 of them were recorded while speaking in English. Two systems were proposed for estimating the English proficiency level of the speaker; one used 72 audio features, extracted from speech signals, and the other used 112 features extracted from EEG signals. Multi-class support vector machines (SVM) was used for training and testing both systems using a cross-validation strategy. The speech-based system outperformed the EEG system with 68% accuracy on 60 testing audio recordings, compared with 56% accuracy on 30 testing EEG recordings

Re-examining Phonological and Lexical Correlates of Second Language Comprehensibility:The Role of Rater Experience

Few researchers and teachers would disagree that some linguistic aspects of second language (L2) speech are more crucial than others for successful communication. Underlying this idea is the assumption that communicative success can be broadly defined in terms of speakers’ ability to convey the intended meaning to the interlocutor, which is frequently captured through a listener-based rating of comprehensibility or ease of understanding (e.g. Derwing & Munro, 2009; Levis, 2005). Previous research has shown that communicative success – for example, as defined through comprehensible L2 speech – depends on several linguistic dimensions of L2 output, including its segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation, fluency-based characteristics, lexical and grammatical content, as well as discourse structure (e.g. Field, 2005; Hahn, 2004; Kang et al., 2010; Trofimovich & Isaacs, 2012). Our chief objective in the current study was to explore the L2 comprehensibility construct from a language assessment perspective (e.g. Isaacs & Thomson, 2013), by targeting rater experience as a possible source of variance influencing the degree to which raters use various characteristics of speech in judging L2 comprehensibility. In keeping with this objective, we asked the following question: What is the extent to which linguistic aspects of L2 speech contributing to comprehensibility ratings depend on raters’ experience

Video-based interaction, negotiation for comprehensibility, and second language speech learning: a longitudinal study

The current study examined the impact of video-based conversational interaction on the longitudinal development (one academic semester) of second language (L2) production by college-level Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language learners. Students in the experimental group engaged in weekly, dyadic conversation exchanges with native speakers in the US via telecommunication tools, wherein the native speaking interlocutors were trained to provide interactional feedback in the form of recasts when the non-native speakers’ utterances hindered successful understanding (i.e., negotiation for comprehensibility). The students in the comparison group received regular foreign language instruction without any interaction with native speakers. The video-coded data showed that the experimental students incidentally worked on improving all linguistic domains of language, thanks to their native speaking interlocutors’ interactional feedback (recasts, negotiation) during the treatment. The pre-/post-test data led to significant gains in their comprehensibility, fluency and lexicogrammar, but not in the accentedness and pronunciation dimensions of their spontaneous production abilitie

Effects of Corrective Feedback on Second Language Pronunciation Development

Given that the pedagogical potential of corrective feedback (CF) for second language (L2) pronunciation development has received rapidly increasing interest in recent years (e.g., Saito & Lyster, 2012 in Language Learning), it is timely and prudent to provide a piece of scholarly work which focuses on synthesizing and presenting the current state of affairs. According to existing descriptive studies, both teachers and learners equally consider the provision of CF to be a crucial component of L2 pronunciation development, especially when the errors in question hinder successful communication. More recently, a growing number of scholars have investigated the acquisitional value of pronunciation-focused CF by conducting quasi-experimental studies with a pre-test/post-test design in both classroom and laboratory settings. Whereas the results have generally shown that pronunciation-focused CF facilitates the development of both segmental and suprasegmental accuracy, the effectiveness of such CF techniques appears to be subject to a great deal of individual variability. Specifically, the potentials of pronunciation-focused CF can be maximized (a) when L2 learners have enough phonetic knowledge, conversational experience, and perceptual awareness of target sounds; (b) when CF provides model pronunciation forms (e.g., recasts rather than prompts); and (c) when the target of instruction concerns communicatively important and salient features

A longitudinal investigation of the relationship between motivation and late second language speech learning in classroom settings

The current study set out to examine the role of learner motivation in second language (L2) speech learning in English-as-a-Foreign-Language classrooms. The motivational orientations of 40 first-year university Japanese students were surveyed via a tailored questionnaire and linked to their spontaneous speech development, elicited via a timed picture description task at the onset and end of one academic semester, in terms of perceived comprehensibility (i.e., ease of understanding) and accentedness (i.e., linguistic nativelikeness). Significant improvement in comprehensibility (but not accentedness) was found among certain individuals. These students likely showed a strong motivation to study English for their future career development as a vague and long-term goal, as well as a high degree of concern for improving comprehensibility, grammatical accuracy and complexity

Individual differences in second language speech learning in classroom settings: roles of awareness in the longitudinal development of Japanese learners’ English /ɹ/ pronunciation

The current study longitudinally examined a crucial individual difference variable—i.e., awareness (operationalized as explicit attention and articulatory knowledge)—in adult second language (L2) speech learning in the context of 40 Japanese learners’ English /ɹ/ pronunciation development in an EFL classroom. The participants’ speech, elicited from word reading, sentence reading and timed picture description tasks at the beginning and end of one academic semester, were analyzed in terms of three acoustic dimensions of English /ɹ/—third formant (F3), second formant (F2) and duration. Whereas the participants showed gains in the relatively easy aspect of the English /ɹ/ acquisition (F2 reduction) as a function of increased L2 input, their explicit awareness of accurate English /ɹ/ pronunciation played a significant role in the acquisition of the relatively difficult dimension (lengthening phonemic duration). The awareness-acquisition link was not found, however, for the most difficult dimension (F3 reduction) at least within the timeframe of the project

The impact of speech rate reduction techniques on the listening comprehension performance of Egyptian high school students

The speech rate (SR) of the recorded aural native input has been recurrently reported by EFL listeners worldwide as being the major obstacle to achieve successful listening comprehension (LC). To investigate the efficacy of natural rate reduction techniques in facilitating LC, this study was designed to compare and contrast the immediate effect(s) of exposing two intact classes (n=46) of Egyptian high school students enrolled in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) to two SR reduction techniques. The first technique was the deliberate articulation (DA), and the second was inserting three-second pauses at T-unit boundaries. The dependent variables were the students\u27 LC task scores on the one hand, and their perceptions of the slow speeds appropriateness to their LC needs, on the other hand. LC proficiency was considered as a moderating variable. A Control group (n=26) was included to collect baseline data on these students\u27 LC performance in the normal SRs adopted in Cambridge exams. A mixed design approach was followed in collecting data. Five sets of LC task scores were gathered in five weeks. During the 1st, 3rd and 5th weeks, the experimental classes completed the LC tasks in the normal speed (NS) condition. In the 2nd and the 4th weeks, the experimental classes performed their LC tasks while listening to texts modified according to the two techniques under investigation. This design was meant to allow each of these two classes to experience the two reduced SR conditions. Triangulation of data collection tools was achieved. Thus, beside task scores and class observations, retrospective semi-structured interviews were held with 14 students representing three LC proficiency levels immediately after each of the five tasks to examine in depth the interaction between the listeners\u27 LC proficiency level and their perceptions of the reduced SRs appropriateness. SPSS analyses of significance of variance (one-way ANOVA and independent t-tests) of mean scores showed a statistically significant drop in LC scores in the reduced SR conditions compared to the normal ones. Further, the interviewees\u27 input clarified the observed discrepancy between perceptions of improved overall understanding and poor task performance. Although both techniques provided the participants with added processing time to deduce meanings, and to read questions thoroughly before listening, the reduced SRs interfered with the introspective task management leading to concentration breakdown and feelings of boredom. Despite this interference, a number of intermediate and all of the low-level interviewees received improved task scores, and reported facilitated LC. One implication of the results is that English as a Foreign Language learners (EFLs) of advanced, intermediate and low LC proficiency are recommended to be instructed in rapid speech phonology (Cauldwell, 2002) by a variety of SR reduction techniques to develop sound LC bottom-up skills before their exposure to the spontaneous native talk