ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of embodied training of pronunciation with visuospatial hand gestures cueing Mandarin aspirated plosives. Sixty-seven Catalan participants learned to pronounce and memorised novel Mandarin words containing non-native aspirated plosives with or without performing hand gestures. They were tested on perception, production, and word-meaning recognition in a pretest, an immediate, and a delayed posttest. Results show that participants who appropriately performed hand gestures gained enhanced voice onset time (VOT) values of the aspirated plosives and yielded a continuous improvement in the overall pronunciation of the target words. Furthermore, gestural training helped maintain word recognition accuracy after three days, while non-gestural training did not. These results suggest that appropriate gesture performance during training is crucial in maintaining the effects of L2 pronunciation training. Overall, the results highlight the relevance of embodied training for L2 pronunciation and the need to assess the learners’ gesture performance during the training.

摘要

本研究调查了语音的具身训练和视觉空间手势提示普通话送气塞音的影响。67 名加泰罗尼亚语参与者学会了发音和记忆包含非母语送气塞音的新颖普通话单词，无论是否使用手势。他们在前测、即时和延迟后测中接受了感知、产生和词义识别的测试。结果表明，适当地执行手势的参与者获得了吸气塞音的增强发声时间 (VOT) 值，并在目标单词的整体发音方面产生了持续改进。此外，手势训练有助于在三天后保持单词识别的准确性，而非手势训练则不然。这些结果表明，在训练期间适当的手势表现对于保持 L2 发音训练的效果至关重要。总体而言，结果突出了具体训练对 L2 发音的相关性以及在培训期间评估学习者手势表现的必要性。