The influence of formal instruction on segmental speech production by German learners of English

Sammanfattning: This study examines the influence of formal L2 English instruction (FEI) onpronunciation accuracy of similar and new vowels in the framework of Flege’s SpeechLearning Model (Flege, 1995a, 1999, 2002), focusing on selected segmentalpronunciation features produced by native German speakers. A spectral vowelproduction experiment was carried out with 24 German students who attend sixth, ninthand twelfth grade of a south German secondary school by the time this study wasconducted. Spectral characteristics of the similar vowel /ɛ/ and the new vowel /æ/,produced by each subject of the three groups (G6, G9, and G12), were compared tovowel data of native English speakers. In order to test the influence of formalinstruction on selected phonetic segments, which are known to cause difficulties fornative German learners of English, three native English listeners judged on a three pointscale the intelligibility of the segments produced. The results of the vowel experimentshowed significant influence of FEI on pronunciation accuracy of some characteristicsof the similar vowel /ɛ/ but not of the new vowel /æ/. The listener rating experimentshowed that FEI had on average no influence on pronunciation accuracy of the three L2English learner groups.