The Effect Of Production Vs. Perception Training On Learning Australian-Accented English: Evidence From Chinese Speakers

The relation between perception and production has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in L2 speech learning.An increasing amount of research has focused on the effect of perception and production training respectively in language learning,which is expected to better demonstrate the perception-production link and provide guidance for L2 speech teaching and learning.According to existing literature,it is undoubted that perception and production training can provide positive effect in the learning of native language and second languages.However,there is still a scarcity of research on the comparison between the effect of perceptual training and production training on L2 accent learning.Therefore,the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of perceptual training and production training on the learning of L2 Australian-accented English by Chinese listeners.This study endeavors to answer the following two research questions:1.Is the effect of cross-modal(perception and production)training different from that of modal-specific(perception only)training in helping Chinese speakers learn Australianaccented English?2.Do individual differences in perceptual ability and English learning background influence the cross-modal and modal-specific training effect mentioned in question 1?42 Chinese learners of English participated in the formal tests.All participants were assigned to two groups(group A: perception and production training;group B: perception training only).The major results were as follows:1.The effect of perception training on participants’ identification of Australian-accented English was significant,while the combination of perception and production training exerted insignificant effect in this experiment,which indicated that the combination of perception and production training may impede listeners’ learning of L2 sounds.2.The effect of perception and production training cannot be predicted by the individual differences in English learning experience,perceptual sensitivity and other factors,which suggested that listeners’ performance in the identification of Australian-accented English after training was not influenced by individual differences in the above factors.