The current study extends traditional perceptual high-variability phonetic training (HVPT) in a foreign language learning context by implementing a comprehensive training paradigm that combines perception (discrimination and identification) and production (immediate repetition) training tasks and by exploring two potentially enhancing training conditions: the use of non-lexical training stimuli and the presence of masking noise during production training. We assessed training effects on L1-Spanish/Catalan bilingual EFL learners’ production of a difficult English vowel contrast (/æ/-/ʌ/). The participants (N = 62) were randomly assigned to either non-lexical (N = 24) or lexical (N = 24) training and were further subdivided into two groups, one trained in noise (N = 12) and one in silence (N = 12). An untrained control group (N = 14) was also tested. Training gains, measured through spectral distance scores (Euclidean distances) with respect to native speakers’ productions of /æ/ and /ʌ/, were assessed through delayed word and sentence repetition tasks. The results showed an advantage of non-lexical training over lexical training, detrimental effects of noise for participants trained with nonwords, but not for those trained with words, and less accurate production of vowels elicited in isolated words than in words embedded in sentences, where training gains were only observable for participants trained with nonwords.

Comprehensibility and accentedness of L2 speech are often assessed through native listeners' ratings, but there is little research on learners' speech self-assessments. This study investigates the extent to which learners' self-assessment matched native listeners' evaluations and whether their self-assessments were influenced by having previously assessed the performance of peers. In addition, we asked learners to identify the speech features they related to comprehensibility and accentedness when self-assessing their speech. Advanced L2 English learners (N=56) performed a picture-description oral narrative task, which they then self-assessed for comprehensibility and accentedness under two conditions: having previously evaluated 20 speech samples of peers (N=24) or not (N=32). Native English listeners (N=14) assessed the 56 learners' narratives for the same dimensions. Results indicated that learners self-assessed their speech inaccurately for comprehensibility and accentedness, by either overestimating or underestimating their own speech, in accordance with previous research on comprehensibility (Trofimovich et al., 2016). Nevertheless, previous rating experience did not lead to more accurate self-assessments of comprehensibility and accentedness, suggesting that extended practice in the assessment of comprehensibility may be necessary for learners to be able to calibrate their speech selfassessments. When assessing their speech for comprehensibility, learners reported paying attention to pronunciation and the story plot rather than grammar or fluency, whereas for accentedness they focused on segmentals and overall accent rather than suprasegmentals.

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The association between speaking anxiety and L2 speech production, including L2 pronunciation, remains largely under‐researched, especially in relation to task complexity. The present study investigates the effect of task complexity on speaking anxiety and their impact on specific dimensions of L2 speech production: speaking fluency (speed, breakdown, and repair) and accuracy (grammar, lexis and pronunciation); and global assessments of L2 speaking performance: accentedness and comprehensibility. Forty‐two Spanish learners of English performed simple and complex versions of a monologic oral narrative task. The results indicated that task complexity affected learners’ anxiety levels and was detrimental to their L2 speaking fluency, pronunciation accuracy, and accentedness. Moreover, higher self‐perceived anxiety was associated with lower breakdown fluency and less lexico‐grammatical accuracy. Last, once the contributions of L2 proficiency and working memory were controlled for, anxiety accounted for a significant 13%–15% of variance in breakdown fluency.