Individual gains from auditory training of English vowels for Greek native speakers.

Abstract

Several studies have shown that high-variability auditory training can improve the perception of second-language (L2) sounds by adult learners. However, even when testing a homogenous L2 group, considerable differences are commonly found between individuals not only in pre-training performance but also in how each trainee responds to training. Additionally, it is not clear what aspects of perceptual processing are actually being trained. To address these issues the present study trained Greek native speakers in perceiving the vowels of Southern British English. The trainees received five sessions of high-variability auditory training (including multiple words spoken by multiple talkers). The pre- and post-training tests included identification and discrimination tasks in L1 (Greek) and L2 (English), and a nonspeech (F2 only) discrimination task. Preliminary results show significant improvement in the trainees’ identification of L2 vowels, but no significant change in their L2 discrimination. The relationships between pre-training L1, L2, and nonspeech performance and gains in L2 identification for individuals will be discussed.