Roles of Cognitive and Sociopsychological Individual Differences in Second Language Pronunciation Development in Classroom Settings: A Dynamic Systems Theory Approach

Drawing on the framework of Dynamic Systems Theory that affords a holistic approach to understand the language development, the current study conducted a cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of how 51 Japanese learners of English with various experiential, cognitive and sociopsychological profiles differentially attained two different aspects of L2 pronunciation (comprehensibility, accentedness) in foreign language classroom settings. The participants engaged in four weeks of explicit pronunciation instruction. Their extemporaneous speech was collected via a picture description task at the beginning and end of the project. Subsequently, the pre- and post-test samples were rated for accentedness and comprehensibility, and then linked to a range of individual differences (IDs) factors including aptitude, motivation, anxiety, and English learning experience specific to L2 pronunciation development. At the outset of the project, the cross-sectional results suggested (a) three types of IDs examined in the current thesis were relatively independent from each other, and (b) recent L2 learning outside the classroom and anxiety levels were the strong predictors of both comprehensibility and accentedness, whereas and phonemic coding ability was uniquely linked to accentedness. Concerning the improvement in comprehensibility and accentedness after the intervention, the result of longitudinal study demonstrated the overall effectiveness of pronunciation instruction. However, no IDs showed interaction effect on the effectiveness of pronunciation instruction. Based on the findings, I discuss L2 pronunciation learning as a multifaceted, dynamic and ever-changing system as a result of complex interactions between multiple ID factors and pronunciation dimensions

Individual differences in L2 listening proficiency revisited: Roles of form, meaning, and use aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge

The present study revisits the differential roles of form, meaning, and use aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge in L2 listening proficiency. A total of 126 Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language listeners completed the TOEIC Listening test, working memory and auditory processing tests, the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire, and several tasks designed to tap into three broad aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge: (1) the ability to access phonological forms without any orthographic cues (phonologization), (2) the ability to recognize words regardless of the talker (generalization), and (3) the ability to determine the semantic and collocational appropriateness of words in global contexts in a fast and stable manner (automatization). Whereas the perceptual, cognitive, and metacognitive variables made relatively small contributions to L2 listening proficiency (0.4%–21.3%), the vocabulary factors explained a large amount of the variance (77.6%) in the full regression model (R2 = .507). These large lexical effects uniquely derived from the three different aspects of phonological vocabulary knowledge—automatization (55.3%), phonologization (20.8%), and generalization (1.5%). The findings suggest that successful L2 listening skill acquisition draws on not only various levels of phonological form-meaning mapping (phonologization, generalization) but also the spontaneous and robust retrieval of such vocabulary knowledge in relation to surrounding words (automatization)

Training auditory processing promotes second language speech acquisition

Recent evidence suggests that domain-general auditory processing (sensitivity to the spectro-temporal characteristics of sounds) helps determine individual differences in L2 speech acquisition outcomes. The current study examined the extent to which focused training could enhance auditory processing ability, and whether this had a concomitant impact on L2 vowel proficiency. A total of 98 Japanese learners of English were divided into four groups: (1) Auditory-Only (F2 discrimination training); (2) Phonetic-Only (English [æ] and [ʌ] identification training); (3) Auditory-Phonetic (a combination of auditory and phonetic training); and (4) Control training. The results showed that the Phonetic-Only group improved only their English[æ] and [ʌ] identification, while the Auditory-Only and Auditory-Phonetic groups enhanced both auditory and phonetic skills. The results suggest that a learner’s auditory acuity to key, domain-general acoustic cues (F2 = 1200-1600 Hz) promotes the acquisition of knowledge about speech categories (English [æ] vs. [ʌ])

Incidental and Multimodal High Variability Phonetic Training: Potential, Limits, and Future Directions

Scholars have extensively investigated the effectiveness of high variability phonetic training (HVPT), that is, identification and discrimination of second language speech sounds produced by multiple speakers followed by trial-by-trial feedback. Building on the notion of incidental and multimodal learning in cognitive psychology (e.g., Lim & Holt, 2011), we developed a new, HVPT-based videogame paradigm in which participants aimed to shoot clay targets as fast as possible while being guided to learn sound cues as a by-product of planned learning. Focusing on the speech acquisition of 58 Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language learners, the current study set out to test the pedagogical potential and limits of the incidental HVPT approach. According to the results of statistical analyses, the effectiveness of incidental HVPT can be more clearly observed if it focuses on more learnable targets (e.g., acquisition of English [æ]–[ʌ] rather than [r]–[l] contrasts) with gains being more generalizable from trained to new speakers’ voices and from perception to production dimensions

Auditory Processing as Perceptual, Cognitive, and Motoric Abilities Underlying Successful Second Language Acquisition: Interaction Model

A growing amount of attention has been given to examining the domain-general auditory processing of individual acoustic dimensions as a key driving force for adult L2 acquisition. Whereas auditory processing has traditionally been conceptualized as a bottom-up and encapsulated phenomenon, the interaction model (Kraus & Banai, 2007) proposes auditory processing as a set of perceptual, cognitive, and motoric abilities-the perception of acoustic details (acuity), the selection of relevant and irrelevant dimensions (attention), and the conversion of audio input into motor action (integration). To test this hypothesis, we examined the relationship between each component and the L2 outcomes of 102 adult Chinese speakers of English who varied in age, experience, and working memory background. According to the results of the statistical analyses, (a) the tests scores tapped into essentially distinct components of auditory processing (acuity, attention, and integration), and (b) these components played an equal role in explaining various aspects of L2 learning (phonology, morphosyntax) with large effects, even after biographical background and working memory were controlled for. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Auditory precision hypothesis-L2: Dimension-specific relationships between auditory processing and second language segmental learning

Growing evidence suggests a broad relationship between individual differences in auditory processing ability and the rate and ultimate attainment of language acquisition throughout the lifespan, including post-pubertal second language (L2) speech learning. However, little is known about how the precision of processing of specific auditory dimensions relates to the acquisition of specific L2 segmental contrasts. In the context of 100 late Japanese-English bilinguals with diverse profiles of classroom and immersion experience, the current study set out to investigate the link between the perception of several auditory dimensions (F3 frequency, F2 frequency, and duration) in non-verbal sounds and English [r]-[l] perception and production proficiency. Whereas participants' biographical factors (the presence/absence of immersion) accounted for a large amount of variance in the success of learning this contrast, the outcomes were also tied to their acuity to the most reliable, new auditory cues (F3 variation) and the less reliable but already-familiar cues (F2 variation). This finding suggests that individuals can vary in terms of how they perceive, utilize, and make the most of information conveyed by specific acoustic dimensions. When perceiving more naturalistic spoken input, where speech contrasts can be distinguished via a combination of numerous cues, some can attain a high-level of L2 speech proficiency by using nativelike and/or non-nativelike strategies in a complementary fashion

Auditory precision hypothesis-L2: dimension-specific relationships between auditory processing and second language learning

Growing evidence suggests a broad relationship between individual differences in auditory processing ability and the rate and ultimate attainment of language acquisition throughout the lifespan, including post-pubertal second language (L2) speech learning. However, little is known about how the precision of processing of specific auditory dimensions relates to the acquisition of specific L2 segmental contrasts. In the context of 100 late Japanese-English bilinguals with diverse profiles of classroom and immersion experience, the current study set out to investigate the link between the perception of several auditory dimensions (F3 frequency, F2 frequency, and duration) in non-verbal sounds and English [r]-[l] perception and production proficiency. Whereas participants' biographical factors (the presence/absence of immersion) accounted for a large amount of variance in the success of learning this contrast, the outcomes were also tied to their acuity to the most reliable, new auditory cues (F3 variation) and the less reliable but already-familiar cues (F2 variation). This finding suggests that individuals can vary in terms of how they perceive, utilize, and make the most of information conveyed by specific acoustic dimensions. When perceiving more naturalistic spoken input, where speech contrasts can be distinguished via a combination of numerous cues, some can attain a high-level of L2 speech proficiency by using nativelike and/or non-nativelike strategies in a complementary fashion

Does Domain-General Auditory Processing Uniquely Explain the Outcomes of Second Language Speech Acquisition, Even Once Cognitive and Demographic Variables are Accounted For?

Extending the paradigm in L1 acquisition, scholars have begun to investigate whether participants’ domain-general ability to represent, encode, and integrate spectral and temporal dimensions of sounds (i.e., auditory processing) could be a potential determinant of the outcomes of post-pubertal L2 speech learning. The current study set out to test the hypothesis that auditory processing makes a unique contribution to L2 speech acquisition for 70 Japanese classroom learners of English with different levels of L2 proficiency when biographical backgrounds (length of instruction and immersion) and memory abilities (working, declarative, and procedural memory) are controlled for. Auditory processing loaded onto modality-general capacities to represent and incorporate anchor stimuli (relative to target stimuli) into long-term memory in an implicit fashion, but dissociated from explicit abilities to remember, associate, and elaborate sensory information. Auditory processing explained a small-to-medium amount of variance in L2 speech learning, even after the other potentially confounding variables were statistically factored out

Developing, analyzing and sharing multivariate datasets: individual differences in L2 learning revisited

Following the trends established in psychology and emerging in L2 research, we explain our support for an Open Science approach in this paper (i.e., developing, analyzing and sharing datasets) as a way to answer controversial and complex questions in applied linguistics. We illustrate this with a focus on a frequently debated question, what underlies individual differences in the dynamic system of post-pubertal L2 speech learning? We provide a detailed description of our dataset which consists of spontaneous speech samples, elicited from 110 late L2 speakers in the UK with diverse linguistic, experiential and sociopsychological backgrounds, rated by ten L1 English listeners for comprehensibility and nativelikeness. We explain how we examined the source of individual differences by linking different levels of L2 speech performance to a range of learner-extrinsic and intrinsic variables related to first language backgrounds, age, experience, motivation, awareness, and attitudes using a series of factor and Bayesian mixed-effects ordinal regression analyses. We conclude with a range of suggestions for the fields of applied linguistics and SLA, including the use of Bayesian methods in analyzing multivariate, multifactorial data of this kind, and advocating for publicly available datasets. In keeping with recommendations for increasing openness of the field, we invite readers to rethink and redo our analyses and interpretations from multiple angles by making our dataset and coding publicly available as part of our 40th anniversary ARAL article