Contrastive vs non-contrastive meta-phonetic input in teaching foreign language pronunciation

Abstract

Almost every study on explicit meta-phonetic instruction in teaching foreign language (L2) pronunciation confirms its facilitating effect. However, hardly any studies applying contrastive (L1-L2) meta-phonetic instruction are available so far. The current study examines the effectiveness of contrastive meta-phonetic input in comparison with the effectiveness of non-contrastive (L2) meta-phonetic input via the laboratory analysis of 80 adult Slovak speakers' English pronunciation. Their English pronunciation quality, as reflected in the formant structure of vowels is measured before and after the contrastive input in the experimental group and non-contrastive input in the control group. The values are then compared to the standard values of British English vowels. It is hypothesized that English vowels produced by the experimental group approximate to the standard values more than the vowels produced by the control group. The results showed a more significant approximation in the experimental group which indicates higher effectiveness of contrastive meta-phontic input in teaching foreign language pronunciation. © Lidil.