Effects of repeating after stimuli sounds during computer assisted HVPT on Japanese learners’ perception and production of English fricatives

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of using an online High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) program for university students whose first language is Japanese and who studied English as a foreign language. The target sounds were English fricatives, which many of the participants felt were challenging to distinguish and articulate. The training was conducted for five weeks; each week consisted of three HVPT sessions. The training process consisted of an initial explanation of how to articulate the sounds followed by a video that showed the physical articulative movements. The participants listened to stimuli sounds, produced the sounds after each stimulus, and completed an identification task. Based on pre and posttests, the perception performance of the participants improved significantly through the HVPT training. Regarding production, a positive effect was found for one phoneme, while no difference was found for the other. Questionnaire results were generally positive but indicated the need for explicit instruction for some of the fricatives that exhibited relatively lower successful production and perception rates.