engleski

Verbotonal method in phonetic correction of palatal approximant /lj/

Although often neglected in foreign language teaching, pronunciation holds a very important role in language acquisition or learning. On the phonological level adult learners of foreign languages tend to have problems with the speech sounds that are close to some sounds in their native language but learners do not recognize them as different and replace them with the similar speech sounds from their native language. These errors are almost systematic if learners belong to the same L1 and learn the same L2. In the verbotonal method it is referred to as the system of errors. Another set of problems arises with the sounds that do not exist in the learners’ native language. In this paper, effects of phonetic training based on several elements (sound context with respect to optimal frequency band and coarticulation, position of the target sound within the word or sentence, intonation, tenseness of articulation as well as movement and body posture accompanying speech production) according to the verbotonal method are shown in the example of the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/, which is one of the hardest sounds to pronounce for foreign learners of Croatian as L2. Learners of different native languages (Spanish, Czech, English, German and Hungarian) were recorded before and after sessions of phonetic training. The results were assessed using a perceptual test. Furthermore, acoustical analyses were performed in Praat. The results showed higher F2 after correction sessions. Since body posture accompanying speech production seems to be one of the crucial elements for correction of this specific error, the importance of body movement and posture in speech is discussed in more detail. Overall changes in pronunciation after phonetic training are also discussed.

verbotonal method, phonetic correction, palatal approximant

nije evidentirano