Is L2 pronunciation affected by increased task complexity in pronunciation-unfocused speaking tasks? 

Grounded on the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), this studyexamines the effects of task complexity on L2 pronunciation accuracyand global pronunciation measures in pronunciation-unfocused tasks,and assesses the relationship between acoustic and listener-basedpronunciation measures. Eighty-two...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Mora Plaza, Ingrid, Mora Bonilla, Joan Carles, Ortega, Mireia, Aliaga-Garcia, Cristina
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/218649
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/218649
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Adquisició d'una segona llengua
Pronunciació
Second language acquisition
Pronunciation
Descrição
Resumo:Grounded on the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), this studyexamines the effects of task complexity on L2 pronunciation accuracyand global pronunciation measures in pronunciation-unfocused tasks,and assesses the relationship between acoustic and listener-basedpronunciation measures. Eighty-two Catalan/Spanish learners of Englishperformed simple and complex versions of a problem-solving monologicspeaking task, for which the oral stops /p, t, k/ and vowel contrasts /i:/-/ɪ/ and /æ/-/ʌ/ were embedded in the lexical items used to perform thetask. Pronunciation accuracy was gauged through acousticmeasurements of laryngeal timing (voice onset time) and vowelcontrastiveness and nativelikeness (Mahalanobis distances), and nativespeakers’ ratings of comprehensibility and accentedness. Resultsrevealed detrimental effects of increased task complexity on theproductions of oral stops and speech comprehensibility andaccentedness; however, no consistent task complexity effects werefound on vowel accuracy. The analysis also revealed an associationbetween segmental accuracy and global dimensions of L2 speech.