A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Does Studying in a Music-oriented Education Program Affect Non-native Sound Learning? — Effects of Passive Auditory Training on Children’s Vowel Production




AuthorsImmonen Katja, Kilpeläinen Jemina, Alku Paavo, Peltola Maija S.

PublisherAcademy Publication Co., Ltd

Publication year2021

JournalJournal of Language Teaching and Research

Volume12

Issue5

First page 678

Last page687

eISSN2053-0684

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1205.06(external)

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/66666897(external)


Abstract

Earlier studies have shown that children are efficient second language learners. Research has also shown that musical background might affect second language learning. A two-day auditory training paradigm was used to investigate whether studying in a music-oriented education program affects children’s sensitivity to acquire a non-native vowel contrast. Training effects were measured with listen-and-repeat production tests. Two groups of monolingual Finnish children (9–11 years, N=23) attending music-oriented and regular fourth grades were tested. The stimuli were two semisynthetic pseudo words /ty:ti/ and /tʉ:ti/ with the native vowel /y/ and the non-native vowel /ʉ/ embedded. Both groups changed their pronunciation after the first training. The change was reflected in the second formant values of /ʉ/, which lowered significantly after three trainings. The results show that 9–11-year-old children benefit from passive auditory training in second language production learning regardless of whether or not they attend a music-oriented education program.


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Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 14:37