Technology-Assisted Training in L2 Spanish Pronunciation: Evaluation From Phonetic and Psychometric Perspectives

dc.contributorCipria, Alicia B.
dc.contributorKoronkiewicz, Bryan J.
dc.contributorLightfoot, Douglas J.
dc.contributorGriffin, Darrin J.
dc.contributor.advisorO'Rourke, Erin E.
dc.contributor.authorJacobson, Stacey Michelle
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-23T14:35:02Z
dc.date.available2021-11-23T14:35:02Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractPronunciation is often not given the attention it deserves in the foreign language classroom, especially as research continues to show that poor pronunciation can impede communication (Agostinelli, 2012; Arteaga, 2000). Recent attempts have been made to determine the utility of technology for the purposes of acquiring another language; specifically, speech recognition technology, along with the feedback it can provide, has been found to assist with pronunciation acquisition (Golonka et al., 2014). This study investigated the effects of technology-enhanced Spanish pronunciation training and its potential to improve beginning L2 learners’ accuracy in pronouncing grapheme-phoneme mismatches as well as a decrease in voice onset time (VOT) duration when producing the voiceless stops /p t k/. Over the course of a semester, the pronunciation of learners using an app with speech recognition functionality was compared to that of learners interacting with pronunciation activities in the online companion to the course textbook, and to learners who completed grammar activities with no pronunciation component. Overall, both the grapheme-phoneme mismatch accuracy and VOT duration showed improvement with use of technologies and over time. Beyond the improvement in pronunciation, this study investigated the participants’ opinions regarding the technology they interacted with. The software Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) (Pennebaker, Booth, et al., 2015) was utilized to conduct psychometric analyses of participants’ thoughts and emotions regarding their assigned technology from the language used in the questionnaire responses. Despite participants’ generally positive views of their assigned technology, the findings also supported previous claims that enjoyment does not necessarily translate into improvement (Youngs et al., 2011), and suggest that too much focus on the technology itself may hinder pronunciation improvement.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherhttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/181552
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0003991
dc.identifier.otherJacobson_alatus_0004D_14558
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/8223
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectEnglish
dc.subjectgrapheme-phoneme mismatches
dc.subjectL2 acquisition of pronunciation
dc.subjectLIWC
dc.subjectSpanish
dc.subjectvoice onset time
dc.titleTechnology-Assisted Training in L2 Spanish Pronunciation: Evaluation From Phonetic and Psychometric Perspectivesen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of Modern Languages and Classics
etdms.degree.disciplineLinguistics
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.leveldoctoral
etdms.degree.namePh.D.
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