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Pronunciation Instruction Can Improve L2 Learners' Bottom-Up Processing For Listening, Elizabeth M. Kissling
Pronunciation Instruction Can Improve L2 Learners' Bottom-Up Processing For Listening, Elizabeth M. Kissling
Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications
Listening is widely regarded as an important skill that is difficult and necessary to teach in L2 classrooms. Listening requires both top-down and bottom-up processing, yet pedagogical techniques for the latter are often lacking. This study explores the efficacy of pronunciation instruction (PI) for improving learners’ bottom-up processing. The study recruited 116 relatively novice learners of Spanish as a foreign language and provided the experimental groups with brief lessons in PI emphasizing segmental or suprasegmental features followed by production-focused or perception-focused practice. Learners’ bottom-up processing skill was assessed with a sentence-level dictation task. Learners given PI on suprasegmental features followed …
Phonetics Instruction Improves Learners' Perception Of L2 Sounds, Elizabeth M. Kissling
Phonetics Instruction Improves Learners' Perception Of L2 Sounds, Elizabeth M. Kissling
Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications
Explicit phonetics instruction can help second language (L2) learners to moderately improve their pronunciation, but less is known about how the instruction affects learners’ perception, even though there is evidence that perception and pronunciation are related. This study provided phonetics instruction to students (n = 46) studying Spanish as a foreign language and measured the resulting change in their perception of eight target phones as compared with a control group (n = 41). Perception was assessed with discrimination tests immediately following instruction and three weeks later. Results indicated that the instruction conferred a small advantage in the delayed …