%0 Journal Article
%T Individual differences in second language speech learning in classroom settings: Roles of awareness in the longitudinal development of Japanese learners¡¯ English /£¿/ pronunciation
%A Kazuya Saito
%J Second Language Research
%@ 1477-0326
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0267658318768342
%X The current study longitudinally examined a crucial individual difference variable ¨C i.e. awareness (operationalized as explicit attention and articulatory knowledge) ¨C in adult second language (L2) speech learning in the context of 40 Japanese learners¡¯ English /£¿/ pronunciation development in an EFL classroom. The participants¡¯ speech, elicited from word reading, sentence reading and timed picture description tasks at the beginning and end of one academic semester, were analysed in terms of three acoustic dimensions of English /£¿/: third formant (F3), second formant (F2) and duration. Whereas the participants showed gains in the relatively easy aspect of the English /£¿/ acquisition (F2 reduction for tongue retraction) as a function of increased L2 input, their explicit awareness of accurate English /£¿/ pronunciation played a significant role in the acquisition of the relatively difficult dimension (lengthening phonemic duration). The awareness-acquisition link was not found, however, for the most difficult dimension (F3 reduction for labial, alveolar and pharyngeal constrictors) at least within the timeframe of the project
%K acoustic phonetics
%K awareness
%K foreign language classroom
%K individual differences
%K pronunciation
%K second language speech
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0267658318768342