One of the most
interesting findings in this week's readings is the one in
"Synchronous-Voice Computer-Mediated Communication: Effects on
Pronunciation" (Alastuey, 2010) about different levels of improvement in
pronunciation across various kinds of dyad (NNS sharing- L1, NNS different-L1, and
NS). The researchers found that, instead of the NNS-NS dyads which would be the
most natural assumption of many of us, NNS-NNS different-L1 dyads seemed to be
the most beneficial for pronunciation development. Such a finding was both surprising
and intriguing for me, mainly because I had never thought of the possibility and
potential of learning a foreign language through collaboration between NNS with
different L1s. However, the reasons given in the article, including reduced anxiety
levels and more opportunities for self-repair did make sense to me. In addition,
according to my own experience as an L2 learner, I believe communication
between NNS with different L1s would indeed require more "standardized"
pronunciation to ensure mutual intelligibility than the one between NNS and NS,
because native speakers usually have higher level of tolerance and
comprehension ability towards deviation in pronunciation.
Finally, I agree with
the author that other kinds of modified output between different types of dyads
would be an interesting and promising area for future research. Thanks to the
development of modern educational technology like SVCMC, researches on language
learning involving diverse learner groups have become more workable and productive.
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| Picture from http://tr.toonpool.com/cartoons/foreign%20language_123073# |
2 comments:
Hey Rong,
Great post and thanks for sharing the interesting findings from Alastuey's article. I found it surprising that NNS dyads learned more than NS-NNS. However, the notion of anxiety and the mistake fixing make sense. I would have a lot more anxiety speaking to a native speaker than to a classmate who is on the same page as me. I also feel like the native speaker would have to be told not to fix the NNS mistakes or else the teacher would have to teach the native speaker how to mentor the NNS for it to be a productive relationship.
Hi Rong,
I also found the result of that article was interesting. The level of anxiety
and similar cultural background can affect the phonetic errors and breakdown in conversation. I often experience the mutual understanding and acceptance toward wrong pronunciation or intonation of certain words among L2 learners whether they have same or different culture. Some of those pronunciation might not be understandable for native speakers; however, it is acceptable for L2 learners since they know what pronunciations are difficult to pronounce and incorrect but understandable.
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