The pedagogical use of mobile speech synthesis (TTS): focus on French liaison

ABSTRACT

We examine the impact of the pedagogical use of mobile TTS on the L2 acquisition of French liaison, a process by which a word-final consonant is pronounced at the beginning of the following word if the latter is vowel-initial (e.g. peti/t.a/mi = > peti[ta]mi ‘boyfriend’). The study compares three groups of L2 French students learning how to produce liaison over a two-month period, following a pretest-posttests design within a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis. Participants were divided into three groups: (1) the TTS Group used a TTS application on their mobile devices to complete weekly pronunciation tasks consisting of noticing, listen-and-categorize, and listen-and-repeat; (2) the Non-TTS Group completed the same weekly pronunciation tasks in weekly sessions with a teacher; finally, (3) the Control Group participated in weekly meetings ‘to practice their conversation skills’ with a teacher, who provided no pronunciation feedback. The results indicate that, although all three groups improved in liaison production, if considered separately (within groups), only the two experimental groups improved over time. The discussion of our findings highlights the pedagogical use of mobile TTS technology to complement and enhance the teaching of L2 pronunciation.

KEYWORDS:

• Text-to-speech (TTS)
• second language acquisition of French
• pronunciation

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Notes on contributors

Denis Liakin

Denis Liakin is an Associate Professor of French and Linguistics at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). His reserach interests include effects of computer technology on L2 learning, corrective phonetics and second language acquisition of syntax.

Walcir Cardoso

Walcir Cardoso is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Concordia University. He conducts research on the L2 acquisition of phonology, morphosyntax and vocabulary, and the effects of computer technology (e.g., clickers, text-to-speech synthesizers, automatic speech recognition) on L2 learning.

Natallia Liakina

Natallia Liakina's professional experience includes teaching French as a second language at the university level in Ontario and in Quebec. Since 2006, she has taught at the French Language Center at McGill University. Her current research is focused on corrective phonetics and the impact of new technologies on second language teaching and learning.