Sing first: listen later: Noticing new or different sounds in L2 pronunciation learning

Here's one for all of us who make extensive use of singing in class. (Here is yet another case where experienced practitioners know it works from experience but have been just waiting for research to catch up and tell them why!) Research by McLachlan, Marco,  Light and Wilson at Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, summarized, as usual, by Science Daily . . . notes the following:

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Clker

 "What we found was that people needed to be familiar with sounds created by combinations of notes before they could hear the individual notes. If they couldn't find the notes they found the sound dissonant or unpleasant . . . This finding overturns centuries of theories that physical properties of the ear determine what we find appealing."

 

In other words, at some very basic level, appreciation of a style of music is learned. The "notes" in the study had to be first encountered in relation to others in the system before they could be identified or appreciated. Singing in language instruction--and probably to a lesser degree, listening comprehension techniques with pronunciation-- certainly serve that function. This is an important study, one with very interesting potential ramifications for our work. I will try to get the full research report and report back . . ..

Notice: Here is my annual apology for using sometimes less than reliable or politically neutral  secondary sources, such as Science Daily or The New York Times or research abstracts from studies that receive  public support but publish in journals that you can't access with out being a member of "The Guild" or can't afford to pay $32 per article for (or wouldn't just on ethical grounds if you did have the spare change lying around): Sorry about that. (There. Done.)

In your ears!!! (Not for accurate sound discrimination!)

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Have long recommended that learners NOT use headsets when working on pedagogical movement patterns--and also go easy on that practice in general sound discrimination work. (For one thing their arms get tangled up in the cords!) Now there is an empirical study that adds a little support to that principle. As reported in Science Daily, Okamoto and Kakigi of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, along with Pantev and Teismann from the University of Muenster, have demonstrated that listening to loud music with mini earphones may have a detrimental effect on ability to make fine judgements on sound discrimination. Although the "damage" was not detectable using standard hearing tests, the effect was striking with their more sensitive instrumentation. They termed the effect one of losing perception of "vividness" in contrast. The impact would then be even more "pronounced" with a learner that does not have good sound discrimination ability in the first place--especially one who plays his or her mp3 player at levels well beyond "vivid!" On the other hand, the learner may be cranking up the volume to compensate for lack of perceived vividness--especially men with typical loss of high frequency response with age. So, help students learn to carefully manage the volume of their recorded pronunciation practice and the rest of their mp3-ing. Sound advice.