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The effects of songs in the foreign language classroom on text recall and involuntary mental rehearsal

This study examines how listener judgments of second language speech relate to individual differences in listeners’ phonological memory, attention control, and musical ability. Sixty native English listeners (30 music majors, 30 nonmusic majors) rated 40 nonnative speech samples for accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency. The listeners were also assessed for phonological memory (serial recognition), attention control (trail making), and musical aptitude. Results showed that music majors assigned significantly lower scores than nonmusic majors solely for accentedness, particularly for low ability second language speakers. However, the ratings were not significantly affected by individual differences in listeners’ phonological memory and attention control, which implies that these factors do not bias listeners’ subjective judgments of speech. Implications for psycholinguistic research and for high-stakes speaking assessments are discussed.

/pdf/phonological-memory-attention-control-and-musical-ability-4j8ve5bhsb.pdf

Phonological memory, attention control, and musical ability: effects of individual differences on rater judgments of second language speech

Musicality and phonetic language aptitude

The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of English verbal songs on connected speech aspects of adult English learners’ speech production. 40 participants were selected based on the results of their performance in a piloted and validated version of NELSON test given to 60 intermediate English learners in a language institute in Tehran. Then they were equally distributed in two control and experimental groups and received a validated pretest of reading aloud and speaking in English. Afterward, the treatment was performed in 18 sessions by singing preselected songs culled based on some criteria such as popularity, familiarity, amount, and speed of speech delivery, etc. In the end, the posttests of reading aloud and speaking in English were administered. The results revealed that the treatment had statistically positive effects on the connected speech aspects of English learners’ speech production at statistical .05 level of significance. Meanwhile, the results represented that there was not any significant difference between the experimental group’s mean scores on the posttests of reading aloud and speaking. It was thus concluded that providing the EFL learners with English verbal songs could positively affect connected speech aspects of both modes of speech production, reading aloud and speaking. The Findings of this study have pedagogical implications for language teachers to be more aware and knowledgeable of the benefits of verbal songs to promote speech production of language learners in terms of naturalness and fluency. Keywords: English Verbal Songs, Connected Speech, Speech Production, Reading Aloud, Speaking

/pdf/the-effect-of-english-verbal-songs-on-connected-speech-2ojggsc3oh.pdf

The Effect of English Verbal Songs on Connected Speech Aspects of Adult English Learners’ Speech Production

This study was a longitudinal investigation into how learner individual differences (IDs) and linguistic factors shape developmental trajectories of second language (L2) production of the Spanish mid vowels /e/ and /o/. Adult English-speaking learners enrolled in 2 semester (Intro II, N = 13) and 6 semester (Advanced II, N = 31) university-level Spanish courses completed a written elicitation production task three times over the course of a semester and measures of ID variables (i.e., L2 aptitude, working memory capacity, phonological short-term memory, L2 motivation, and L2 proficiency level) once during the semester. The production measure elicited /e/ and /o/ in tonic syllables of Spanish target words. Acoustic analysis was used to measure vowel duration and normalized F1 and F2 formant values (Bark units) for each vowel. Since even native and bilingual speakers produce vowels within a range of acceptable values, development was operationalized as movement toward the mean duration and mean F1 and F2 Bark values of bilingual speakers, as well as minimization of the dispersion of these values. Findings demonstrated that over the course of the semester, Intro II learners exhibited more movement toward the bilingual means than Advanced II learners. Statistical improvements were largely related to vowel duration, with less statistical change observed for F1 and F2

Individual differences and linguistic factors in the development of mid vowels in L2 Spanish learners: A longitudinal study

Relations Between Musical Aptitudes and Second-Language Learning.

/pdf/relationship-between-musical-aptitudes-and-second-language-5fiy2ftivs.pdf

Jean E. Draper

Papers

Relations Between Musical Aptitudes and Second-Language Learning.

Relationship Between Musical Aptitudes and Second-Language Learning. Final Report.