Abstract

Visual feedback, in which learners visually analyze acoustic speech characteristics, has been shown to significantly improve pronunciation, but extant research has varied widely with respect to the target feature, length of the intervention, and type of intervention. This study presents a comparative analysis of three methods of visual feedback for L2 segmental pronunciation instruction. These methods, all focused on training voice onset time for English-speaking learners of Spanish, differed in duration of instruction (i.e., short and long) and the nature of each intervention (i.e., phonemes presented simultaneously or sequentially). Results show that while all forms of visual feedback significantly improve L2 Spanish pronunciation, evidenced by a reduction in voice onset time, the greatest improvement was found following both longer treatments and a sequential approach. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

Comments

This is the author-accepted manuscript of Olson, D. J., & Offerman, H. M. (2020). Maximizing the effect of visual feedback for pronunciation instruction: A comparative analysis of three approaches. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 7(1), 89-115. Copyright John Benjamins Publishing Company, the version of record is available at https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.20005.ols, and permission for reuse must be obtained from original publisher.

Keywords

visual feedback; voice onset time; Spanish; classroom; technology; English; pronunciation

Date of this Version

2021

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