<p>The purpose of this study was twofold. Firstly, this study sought to capture second
semester language students’ auditory perception of German vowels. Secondly, this study sought to investigate
the effectiveness of direct pronunciation instruction in enhancing learners’
perception and consequent production of German vowels. Vowels were selected to be analyzed in this
study, as they are the nucleus of words (Derwing, Thomson, Foote, & Munro,
2012). Front rounded vowels in German
were given particular attention, as they do not exist in English, and they
frequently pose as a challenge for native English-speakers to learn (O’Brien
& Fagan, 2016, Hall, 2003). </p>
<p>This study was conducted at a large
midwestern U.S. university. The project
consisted of 47 participants which were divided into experimental and control
groups. Throughout the duration of the study, students were administered a
biographical survey, and a pre- and post-test which consisted of a listening
identification exercise and speaking assessment. Participants in the test group were also
offered a lesson on the German phonemic system as it relates to German vowels. Upon the completion of the study, the data
analyzed did not yield any significant results.
Students’ scores on the perception and production exercises taken from
both the pre- and post-tests remained largely stagnant. This was true for the test scores taken from
the experimental and control groups. Though
the study outcomes did not produce the hypothesized results, they do underscore
the need for long-term explicit pronunciation instruction in the language
classroom. </p>
<br>
<p> </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/8304005 |
| Date | 02 August 2019 |
| Creators | Adrial D Bryan (6862790) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/The_Effectiveness_of_Explicit_Pedagogical_Intervention_in_the_L2_Perception_and_Production_of_German_Vowels/8304005 |
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