Hand-clapping to the rhythm of newly learned words improves L2 pronunciation: Evidence from training Chinese adolescents with French words

• Published in: Language teaching research : LTR Vol. 24; no. 5; pp. 666 - 689
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yuan, Baills, Florence, Prieto, Pilar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2020; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Acoustics; Adolescents; Asians; Audiovisual Instruction; Between-subjects design; Chinese languages; Educational Facilities Improvement; Foreign Countries; French; French as a second language; Intonation; Language Processing; Language Rhythm; Middle School Students; Music; Native Speakers; Phonetics; Phonological processing; Phonology; Pretests Posttests; Pronunciation; Pronunciation Instruction; Prosody; Rhythm; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Short Term Memory; Speech Communication; Suprasegmentals; Syllables; Teaching Methods; Teenagers; Words; China; Hand-clapping; prosodic structure; rhythmic training; rhythm; second language pronunciation; second language phonology

Though research has shown that rhythmic training is beneficial for phonological speech processing, little empirical work has been carried out to assess whether rhythmic training in the classroom can help to improve pronunciation in a second language. This study tests the potential benefits of hand-c...