Learning of English as L2 in French learners
Contact person
Emmanuel FERRAGNE , Jennifer KRZONOWSKI , Francois PELLEGRINO
Scientific framework and objectives
Most French learners of English start learning this second language after what many authors regard as the critical period for the acquisition of phonology. As a result, learners experience (at least partial) phonological deafness, which prevents them from i) discriminating between certain sounds of English, and therefore, ii) producing them. Given that many studies have shown that a foreign accent is always judged negatively by native listeners, it is our goal to design specific strategies to help learners improve their pronunciation.
In our work we focus on those parts of the English phonological inventory that French learners do not perceive accurately. Participants to our experiments perform training with feedback involving perception (discrimination, identification) and production (real-time analysis of selected acoustic cues). The effectiveness of this training is assessed thanks to a comparison of the data collected before and after training; these include behavioral, EEG, and acoustic data.
Publications
- Krzonowski, J., Ferragne, E., Pellegrino, F., 2015, "Effects of perception and production trainings on the production of English vowels by French native learners", proc. of 6th ISEL Conference on Experimental Linguistics, Athens, Greece, 26-27 juin, Botinis, A. (eds), pp. 37-40
- Krzonowski, J., Ferragne, E., Pellegrino, F., 2016, "Perception et production de voyelles de l’anglais par des apprenants francophones : effet d’entraînements en perception et en production", actes de Journées d'Etudes sur la Parole, Paris, 4-8 juillet, pp. 491-499
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