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Improving Second Language Vowel Production With Hand Gestures Encoding Visible Articulation: Evidence From Picture‐Naming and Paragraph‐Reading Tasks

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: This study investigates whether audiovisual phonetic training with hand gestures encoding visible or nonvisible articulation features has a differential impact on learning second language sounds. Ninety‐nine Catalan–Spanish bilingual students were trained to differentiate English /æ/ and /ʌ/, which differ in the visible lip aperture and nonvisible tongue position, with training involving no gestures, gestures representing the lip aperture, or gestures representing the tongue position. Before, immediately after, and 1 week after the training, participants’ perception of the targets was assessed through a word‐identification task, and their production was tested through paragraph‐reading, picture‐naming, and word‐imitation tasks. Although all participants improved in perception and production, the lip hand gesture was more effective in adjusting lip aperture than the other two conditions in the paragraph‐reading and picture‐naming tasks. These results suggest that hand gestures encoding visible rather than nonvisible articulation features are more effective for improving second language pronunciation.

Source: Language Learning

DOI: 10.1111/lang.12647

Authors: Xiaotong Xi, Peng Li, Pilar Prieto

Institutions: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, University of Oslo, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

Language: English

Topic: Phonetics and Phonology Research

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,620