The Combined Effects of Study Abroad and Phonetics Instruction on L2 Spanish Pronunciation Development
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Second Language Acquisition; Phonetics & Phonology; Applied Linguistics
Location
MBSC Dodge Room 302
Start Date
19-10-2024 10:30 AM
End Date
19-10-2024 11:00 AM
Abstract
Both study abroad (SA) and pronunciation instruction (PI) are intuitively appealing for promoting second-language (L2) pronunciation development. Studies in second language acquisition (SLA) have challenged the notion that SA categorically provides an ideal context for L2 pronunciation development, contributing to a more detailed picture of both its potential and its limitations. In the same vein, considerable research has investigated the potential and the limitations of PI across a range of elicitation tasks, features, and measures. There has been little research, however, on the combined effects of SA and PI. The current study investigates the effects of SA on L2 pronunciation development while also comparing it to the effects of SA paired with concurrent, pronunciation-focused phonetics instruction. 20 advanced, L1 English-L2 Spanish participants took part in a six-week SA program in Ecuador. 8 students took a pronunciation-focused Spanish phonetics course during the program, while the remaining 12 did not. Participants produced recordings of themselves completing reading and oral diary tasks throughout the course of the program, and these recordings were evaluated by a diverse group of raters in terms of comprehensibility and foreign accent. Recordings were also analyzed acoustically to determine the average voice onset time (VOT) of the voiceless velar stop /k/. Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed that while neither SA nor the combination of SA and instruction had any effect on participants’ perceived comprehensibility or foreign accent, the instructed group significantly improved their VOT production over the course of the SA program. Participants’ comprehensibility ratings, foreign accent ratings, and VOT production were comparable across both reading and oral diary tasks. These results challenge the assumptions surrounding the efficacy of SA while also shedding light on the potential for PI to contribute to learners’ pronunciation gains during SA.
The Combined Effects of Study Abroad and Phonetics Instruction on L2 Spanish Pronunciation Development
MBSC Dodge Room 302
Both study abroad (SA) and pronunciation instruction (PI) are intuitively appealing for promoting second-language (L2) pronunciation development. Studies in second language acquisition (SLA) have challenged the notion that SA categorically provides an ideal context for L2 pronunciation development, contributing to a more detailed picture of both its potential and its limitations. In the same vein, considerable research has investigated the potential and the limitations of PI across a range of elicitation tasks, features, and measures. There has been little research, however, on the combined effects of SA and PI. The current study investigates the effects of SA on L2 pronunciation development while also comparing it to the effects of SA paired with concurrent, pronunciation-focused phonetics instruction. 20 advanced, L1 English-L2 Spanish participants took part in a six-week SA program in Ecuador. 8 students took a pronunciation-focused Spanish phonetics course during the program, while the remaining 12 did not. Participants produced recordings of themselves completing reading and oral diary tasks throughout the course of the program, and these recordings were evaluated by a diverse group of raters in terms of comprehensibility and foreign accent. Recordings were also analyzed acoustically to determine the average voice onset time (VOT) of the voiceless velar stop /k/. Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed that while neither SA nor the combination of SA and instruction had any effect on participants’ perceived comprehensibility or foreign accent, the instructed group significantly improved their VOT production over the course of the SA program. Participants’ comprehensibility ratings, foreign accent ratings, and VOT production were comparable across both reading and oral diary tasks. These results challenge the assumptions surrounding the efficacy of SA while also shedding light on the potential for PI to contribute to learners’ pronunciation gains during SA.