Malleability of previously-established and newlyestablished phono-lexical representations: a design

Abstract

Previous phonetic training research has yet to provide evidence of its effectiveness in modifying L2 learners’ inaccurate phonological representations in perception and production. In addition, no study to date has explored whether all the words that constitute learners’ L2 lexicon are equally malleable and susceptible to improvement. The study we propose in this paper sets out to test, within a high-variability phonetic training (HVPT) paradigm involving AX discrimination, an identification, and immediate repetition tasks, i) the malleability of the phonological representation of L2 words targeting the difficult vowel contrast /æ/-/ʌ/. And ii) potential differential effects of training participants with lexical (words) or non-lexical (nonwords) materials. To compare the malleability of previously-established and newlyestablished phonological representations participants are asked to complete a series of wordlearning tasks for the latter. Afterwards, they are trained on the target vowel contrast and tested on its perception and production in both word types (i.e.: old and new). To test the differential effects of training materials participants were randomly assigned to lexical or non-lexical training groups. Hypothesized results will be provided based on the evidence that the literature has provided.