Interactive Effects of Perception and Production Training on L2 Phonetic Acquisition

Abstract

Although previous research has found that perception and production training improve L2 speech perception (e.g., Bradlow et al., 1997) and production (e.g., Hattori, 2009), respectively, the interactive effects of these two types of training are still an open question. Furthermore, studies have shown mixed findings on the effects of perception-and-production-mixed training (e.g., Baese-Berk & Samuel, 2016; Lu et al., 2015; Thorin et al., 2018). In addition to the effects of perception and production training, this thesis also considers the role of phonological short-term memory (PSTM) in phonetic acquisition, which has recently been suggested as a predictor of phonetic learning (e.g., Lengeris & Nicolaidis, 2014; MacKay et al., 2001). This thesis investigates the effects of production during perceptual training on the L2 phonetic acquisition of the English /l/-/r/ contrast with L1 Japanese speakers and examines the relationship between PSTM and L2 phonetic learning. Based on the findings, the relationship between perception and production is explored and the effective methods for phonetic acquisition are discussed. Experiments 1 (n = 46) and 2 (n = 61) examined how oral repetition during perceptual training affects perceptual learning using discrimination and identification tasks, respectively. The results revealed that perception-only training led to the most significant improvements in perceptual learning. Disruption occurred especially when participants repeated the stimulus after answering a perceptual question, but not when repeating immediately after hearing it. Experiment 3 (n = 60) investigated whether and how the formation of phonetic categories through exposure to target phonemes facilitates phonetic learning. The results showed that training involving production practice improved production accuracy more than perception-only training, especially when training began with perception-only training and shifted to production-only training. These findings suggest that while production practice is important for pronunciation learning, an initial focus on perception followed by production practice leads to better learning outcomes. The PSTM results revealed no significant relationship between PSTM capacity and either perception or production accuracy before training. Regarding the degree of learning after phonetic training, the findings suggest that the relationship between PSTM capacity and perceptual learning may vary based on initial perceptual ability, with greater PSTM potentially having a positive influence as learning progresses. Show more