High-variability phonetic training (HVPT) has been
shown to be highly effective in improving secondlanguage (L2) perception in adults, and to also benefit
production. In contrast, recent studies have suggested
that children may benefit more from low-variability
phonetic training (LVPT), in particular for
production. The present study compares HVPT and
LVPT articulatory training for production and
perception of Standard Southern British English
(SSBE) vowels in children in a non-immersion
context. Forty-six monolingual Arabic children aged
8-12 years were randomly assigned to single- (LVPT)
or multi-talker (HVPT) training. Both groups
completed five articulatory training sessions on 18
vowels and a battery of perception and production
tests evaluated improvement. The results showed that
the LVPT group performed better not only in
production, but also in category discrimination. The
results support previous studies that have suggested
that LVPT training might be more successful with
children
