Audio-synchronized textual enhancement in L2 pronunciation teaching and learning with TV series
[eng] In the schools of many countries, English is taught as a foreign language with the goal of preparing students for the demands of higher education and for a globalized workforce where English is the lingua franca. However, due to the limited exposure to native or near-native speech in the class...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/205820 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/205820 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/689796 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Fonologia Ensenyament de llengües estrangeres Pronunciació Multimodalitat Seguiment de la mirada Phonology Foreign language teaching Pronunciation Multimodality Eye tracking |
| Sumario: | [eng] In the schools of many countries, English is taught as a foreign language with the goal of preparing students for the demands of higher education and for a globalized workforce where English is the lingua franca. However, due to the limited exposure to native or near-native speech in the classroom, language learners at relatively advanced proficiency levels may still mispronounce words that are relatively common in everyday speech (Cook et al., 2016; Van Zeeland, 2017). Although sounding like a native speaker is an elusive goal, pronunciation instruction can prevent the fossilization of inaccurate phonological representations, increasing the learner’s comprehensibility or ease of understanding (Levis, 2018; Thomson & Derwing, 2014). Watching L2 captioned videos can provide additional exposure to targetlike L2 speech, with positive effects on vocabulary acquisition, speech segmentation and adaptation to diverse L2 accents (Charles and Trenkic, 2015; Montero-Perez et al., 2014; Mitterer & McQueen, 2009). However, the potential of exposure to captioned video for pronunciation learning is still largely unexplored (Montero Perez, 2022). The two main research gaps regard the effects of audiovisual synchrony (the time lag between learners’ processing of captions and spoken dialogue) and of an intervention focused on pronunciation form. The existing research has shown that proficient learners read captions fast, fixating on target words in captions earlier than their auditory onset (Wisniewska & Mora, 2018). In addition, the pioneering study by Wisniewska and Mora (2020), which specifically targeted pronunciation learning through extended exposure to TV series, yielded mixed findings regarding the effectiveness of a focus on form and the availability of captions. This dissertation fills these gaps by proposing an intervention aimed at increasing audiovisual synchrony during exposure to captioned video, facilitating the mapping of phonological forms onto orthographic forms and the updating of non-targetlike phonological representations. In study 1, we investigated whether highlighting in yellow words in captions right before their auditory onset (audio-synchronized textual enhancement) promoted closer audiovisual synchrony during exposure to multimodal input from TV series, resulting in phonological updatings. In study 2, we interviewed a small group of learners to assess their linguistic focus and depth of processing while viewing unenhanced video and when captions contained audio-synchronized textual enhancement. Study 3 consisted in a classroom intervention that combined exposure to videos containing audio-synchronized textual enhancement with opportunities for pronunciation practice and feedback. The results of study 1 showed that audio-synchronized textual enhancement promoted closer audiovisual synchrony than unsynchronized enhancement, and all enhancement conditions including unsynchronized enhancement promoted the updating of lexical phonological representations. In addition, the enhancement mitigated the effects of proficiency and reading speed by slowing down faster and more proficient readers and speeding up slower and less proficient ones. However, study 2 showed that learners’ internal focus may not necessarily be directed to pronunciation if the target words or features are not perceived as problematic for listening comprehension. Against our predictions, study 3 found that audio-synchronized textual enhancement may not offer substantial advantages within a pronunciation-focused classroom intervention. However, the group of learners who carried out the video-based activities without textual enhancement obtained significant pronunciation gains, regardless of their level of L2 proficiency and learning aptitude. Taken together, these results partially support the use of audio-synchronized enhancement in pronunciation teaching and learning but also highlight the challenges of determining the effects of this semi-incidental learning condition (Leow & Martin, 2017). While audio-synchronized enhancement may facilitate noticing of the enhanced target features, factors such as depth of linguistic processing and learners’ previous experience with the target features may be crucial in triggering interlanguage restructuring (Han et al., 2008; Leow, 2015). Although semi-incidental pronunciation learning was difficult to quantify due to learners’ individualized response to input enhancement, the intervention may nevertheless have contributed to gradual improvements in pronunciation accuracy during subsequent exposure and practice. Future studies on pronunciation learning from captioned video may delve further into learners’ processing of auditory input and explore how different audiovisual manipulations can enhance the audiovisual integration of spoken dialogues and captions. |
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