Variables affecting the effects of recasts on L2 pronunciation development

The current study investigated how recasts can promote the L2 pronunciation development of word-initial /ɹ/ by Japanese learners of English in relation to two developmental stages of English /ɹ/ acquisition (i.e., change in second formant [F2] → change in third formant [F3]) as well as four affecting variables (i.e., the amount of recasts and repairs, initial pronunciation levels, explicit articulatory knowledge). Fifty-four Japanese learners of English participated in the study and received four hours of form-focused activity. While teachers gave pronunciation-focused recasts to students in the experimental group (n = 29), no recasts were directed to those in the control group (n = 25). According to the results of the rating session, which involved 20 NS listeners, their positive perception of /ɹ/ was associated with lower F3 values as the primary cue; lower F2 values were demonstrated to be secondary, and less relevant, for listeners’ positive perception of /ɹ/. The results of the ANOVAs showed that whereas the F2 values of both the experimental and control groups equally decreased (i.e., due to the use of the interlanguage strategy), only the experimental group significantly lowered their F3 values (the extent of acquisition). Furthermore, a range of post-hoc analyses found that recast effectiveness was related to the amount of recasts and repairs and initial pronunciation levels

To what extent does long-term foreign language education help improve spoken second language lexical proficiency?

The current study examined lexical aspects of second language (L2) speech attainment in the foreign language (FL) classroom setting (i.e., several hours of target language input per week). A total of 72 second-year university students with seven years of FL study and no experience abroad participated in the study. Their spontaneous speech was analyzed via a set of lexical measures, and then compared to that of experienced, naturalistic Japanese L2 learners of English. According to the results, their lexical proficiency was factored into three dimensions—appropriateness (global, semantic, morphosyntactic accuracy), specificity (frequency, range) and abstractness (concreteness, meaningfulness, imageability, hypernymy). Overall, extensive FL education led many participants’ specificity performance to reach comparable proficiency levels to the baseline group. Approximately half of participants achieved such satisfactory proficiency in abstractness. The participants’ lexical appropriateness demonstrated a great deal of individual variability, and was linked to the extent to which they had recently practiced the target language

Differential effects of instruction on the development of second language comprehensibility, word Stress, rhythm, and intonation: the case of inexperienced Japanese EFL learners

The current study examined in depth the effects of suprasegmental-based instruction on the global (comprehensibility) and suprasegmental (word stress, rhythm, and intonation) development of 10 Japanese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) learners. Students in the experimental group (n = 10) received a total of three hours of instruction over six weeks, while those in the control group (n = 10) were provided with meaning-oriented instruction without any focus on suprasegmentals. Speech samples elicited from read-aloud tasks were assessed via native-speaking listeners’ intuitive judgments and acoustic analyses. Overall, the pre-/post-test data showed significant gains in the overall comprehensibility, word stress, rhythm, and intonation of the experimental group in both trained and untrained lexical contexts. In particular, by virtue of explicitly addressing L1-L2 linguistic differences, the instruction was able to help learners mark stressed syllables with longer and clearer vowels; reduce vowels in unstressed syllables; and use appropriate intonation patterns for yes/no and wh-questions. The findings provide empirical support for the value of suprasegmental-based instruction in phonological development, even with beginner-level EFL learners with a limited amount of L2 conversational experience

Learning new second language sounds as a by-product of playing a videogame: Potential and limitations (OASIS Summary)

Saito, K. (2022). Learning new second language sounds as a by-product of playing a videogame: Potential and limitations. OASIS Summary of Saito, K. et al. (2022) in Language Learning. https://oasis-database.org/concern/summaries/2v23vt96h?locale=e

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

Oral comprehensibility and vocabulary use can be judged based on small multi-word units more than on single words (OASIS Summary)

Saito, K. (2020). Oral comprehensibility and vocabulary use can be judged based on small multi-word units more than on single words. OASIS Summary of Saito, K. (2020) in Language Learning. https://oasis-database.org/concern/summaries/3t945r03g?locale=e