Brief training with rhythmic beat gestures helps L2 pronunciation in a reading aloud task

Prieto, Pilar; Llanes-Coromina, Judith; Rohrer, Patrick Louis

doi:10.21437/speechprosody.2018-101

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Second, we expect the same positive effects on narrative fluency scores, as previous literature has highlighted the positive effects of producing beat gestures on lexical access in adults (Lucero, Zaharchuk, & Casasanto, 2014), as well as on oral fluency (Rauscher, Krauss, & Chen, 1996) and L2 pronunciation (e.g. Gluhareva & Prieto, 2017;Llanes-Coromina, Prieto, & Rohrer, 2018). Our hypothesis is that the rhythmic properties of beat gestures and their tight synchrony with prominent prosodic positions in speech (Shattuck-Hufnagel & Ren, 2018;McNeill, 1992; see also Esteve-Gibert & Prieto, 2013) can enhance oral speech fluency.…”

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 62%

Encouraging kids to beat: Children's beat gesture production boosts their narrative performance

Vilà-Giménez

Prieto

2020

Developmental Science

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have also shown that narrative ability is a strong predictor of later school literacy success (e.g. see Demir, Levine, & Goldin-Meadow, 2012, for a review; Naremore, Densmore, & Harman, 1995). As Demir et al. (2012) claim, narrative skill is 'an oral language skill that is argued to provide the missing link between oral language and later reading comprehension' (p. 6) and 'oral language skills that develop during early ages and provide the foundation for later reading comprehension include vocabulary, syntax, narrative and academic language use' (p. 5).

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Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 62%

Encouraging kids to beat: Children's beat gesture production boosts their narrative performance

Vilà-Giménez

Prieto

2020

Developmental Science

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“…Although language rhythm is commonly associated with suprasegmental features, studies have also suggested links between rhythm and segmental phonology, particularly relating to the temporal aspects of the tense-lax contrast in English (Schwartz, 2010). Indeed, rhythmic perception can have an important role in successful language acquisition (Jusczyk, 1999) and practicing musical rhythm can help achieve more native-like pronunciation and fluency (Llanes-Coromina et al, 2018). Former studies also confirmed the existence of shared neurocognitive resources for rhythm in music and speech (e.g., Magne et al, 2016), as well as successful use of musical rhythm in teaching L2 English prosody, particularly in practicing duration contrasts between stressed and unstressed syllables (Wang et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musical Hearing and Musical Experience in Second Language English Vowel Acquisition

Jekiel

Malarski

2021

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose Former studies suggested that music perception can help produce certain accentual features in the first and second language (L2), such as intonational contours. What was missing in many of these studies was the identification of the exact relationship between specific music perception skills and the production of different accentual features in a foreign language. Our aim was to verify whether empirically tested musical hearing skills can be related to the acquisition of English vowels by learners of English as an L2 before and after a formal accent training course. Method Fifty adult Polish speakers of L2 English were tested before and after a two-semester accent training in order to observe the effect of musical hearing on the acquisition of English vowels. Their L2 English vowel formant contours produced in consonant–vowel–consonant context were compared with the target General British vowels produced by their pronunciation teachers. We juxtaposed these results with their musical hearing test scores and self-reported musical experience to observe a possible relationship between successful L2 vowel acquisition and musical aptitude. Results Preexisting rhythmic memory was reported as a significant predictor before training, while musical experience was reported as a significant factor in the production of more native-like L2 vowels after training. We also observed that not all vowels were equally acquired or affected by musical hearing or musical experience. The strongest estimate we observed was the closeness to model before training, suggesting that learners who already managed to acquire some features of a native-like accent were also more successful after training. Conclusions Our results are revealing in two aspects. First, the learners' former proficiency in L2 pronunciation is the most robust predictor in acquiring a native-like accent. Second, there is a potential relationship between rhythmic memory and L2 vowel acquisition before training, as well as years of musical experience after training, suggesting that specific musical skills and music practice can be an asset in learning a foreign language accent.

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“…Also, Vilà-Giménez, Igualada, and Prieto (2019) showed that observing storytellers who use beat gestures while telling a story improves the performance of children's narrative abilities in story retelling. Moreover, Llanes-Coromina, Prieto, and Rohrer (2018) showed that asking Catalan speakers to produce beat gestures while reading in L2 in a training phase can benefit fluency in a posttest reading task, when no instructions to gesture are provided. These studies together point toward a positive effect of encouraging the use of gestures on speech fluency, though the speech that was evaluated in terms of fluency was not produced specifically in the encouraging gesture phase, but in a posttest phase.…”

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confidence: 99%

Effects of Encouraging the Use of Gestures on Speech

Cravotta

Busà

Prieto

2019

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose Previous studies have investigated the effects of the inability to produce hand gestures on speakers' prosodic features of speech; however, the potential effects of encouraging speakers to gesture have received less attention, especially in naturalistic settings. This study aims at investigating the effects of encouraging the production of hand gestures on the following speech correlates: speech discourse length (number of words and discourse length in seconds), disfluencies (filled pauses, self-corrections, repetitions, insertions, interruptions, speech rate), and prosodic properties (measures of fundamental frequency [F0] and intensity). Method Twenty native Italian speakers took part in a narration task in which they had to describe the content of short comic strips to a confederate listener in 1 of the following 2 conditions: (a) nonencouraging condition (N), that is, no instructions about gesturing were given, and (b) encouraging condition (E), that is, the participants were instructed to gesture while telling the story. Results Instructing speakers to gesture led effectively to higher gesture rate and salience. Significant differences were found for (a) discourse length (e.g., the narratives had more words in E than in N) and (b) acoustic measures (F0 maximum, maximum intensity, and mean intensity metrics were higher in E than in N). Conclusion The study shows that asking speakers to use their hands while describing a story can have an effect on narration length and can also impact on F0 and intensity metrics. By showing that enhancing the gesture stream could affect speech prosody, this study provides further evidence that gestures and prosody interact in the process of speech production.

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Brief training with rhythmic beat gestures helps L2 pronunciation in a reading aloud task

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

Encouraging kids to beat: Children's beat gesture production boosts their narrative performance

Encouraging kids to beat: Children's beat gesture production boosts their narrative performance

Musical Hearing and Musical Experience in Second Language English Vowel Acquisition

Effects of Encouraging the Use of Gestures on Speech

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