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Segmental, prosodic and fluency features in phonetic learner corpora
Edited by Jürgen Trouvain, Frank Zimmerer, Bernd Möbius, Mária Gósy and Anne Bonneau
[International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 3:2] 2017
► pp. 196–222

Phonological development in different learning contexts

A corpus-based study

| University of Münster

This paper examines the effect of learning context on the improvement of some L2 phonological parameters. Based on the Learning Prosody corpus (LeaP), it investigates the speech of 29 learners with various L1s who were recorded before and after either (i) a six to nine-month stay abroad, (ii) a six-month training course in the target language phonology or (iii) a stay abroad that included instruction in the L2 phonology. Quantitative corpus analyses were carried out on the learners’ vowel reduction, intonation and on their oral fluency. Results showed gains for all learner groups in pitch range, vowel reduction and fluency, but only one significant gain for the training course participants (group 2) as compared to the stay abroad groups. Qualitative corpus analyses revealed the pronounced variation across individual learners and suggest an intricate interplay between speaking styles and learning contexts.

Keywords: learning context, stay abroad, speech rate, vowel reduction, L2 English, L2 German
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Effects of learning context on language learning
    • 1.2Learning context and phonological acquisition
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Learning contexts
    • 2.3Materials
    • 2.4Data analysis
      • 2.4.1Measurement of vowel reduction
      • 2.4.2Pitch range
      • 2.4.3Fluency
      • 2.4.4Analysis of other factors
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Overall phonological development
    • 3.2Influence of learning contex
    • 3.3Influence of competence level (accent ratings)
    • 3.4Gains made by individual learners
    • 3.5Other factors
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.3.2.05gut
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