The impact of auditory attention in L2 vowel perception and production by means of phonetic training

Abstract

A listener must process complicated incoming auditory information and strive to accurately perceive and produce language. High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) is used to train the perception and production of L2 speech sounds, improving the learner’s perception of a larger amount of contrasting sounds. However, a learner’s individual differences when processing this auditory input may explain inequalities in L2 perception and production. Attentional resources may be one source of individual differences in acquiring a L2, where differences in attentional capacity can lead to gains or deficits in learning. The aim of the current thesis was to examine if individual differences in auditory selective attention and auditory attention switching explained differences in gains from HVPT within and across HVPT training sessions. One-hundred and five Catalan/Spanish learners of English participated in four sessions of HVPT over a two-week period. Training consisted of two perception tasks, AX discrimination and Identification, and a production task, Immediate repetition. All the tasks focused on the English vowel contrast /æ/-/ʌ/, which is difficult to Catalan/Spanish learners of English. In the perception tasks accuracy was analyzed and in the production task Bark-converted spectral distance scores were evaluated. Participants were also measured on tasks of auditory selective attention and auditory attention switching and assigned to high and low attention control groups using cluster analysis. General linear mixed models examined gains from HVPT between attention groups, within session and between sessions. Results showed that gains in the perception tasks were significantly greater for the higher than the lower auditory attention group both within sessions and over successive sessions. For the production task there were no gains within the sessions, but attention did explain performance over consecutive sessions. These results suggest that gains made in HVPT are related to auditory attention control, especially in AX discrimination and the Identification perception tasks of the /æ/-/ʌ/ vowel contrast and to a lesser extent the Immediate Repetition production task.