Comparing Gains in German Vowel Production Across Three Learning Environments

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Anna Katharina Burton and Dr. Laura C. Smith, Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages

This study sought to compare pronunciation gains in German in three learning environments, focusing especially on the umlauted vowels, e.g., /ø:/ as in Schönheit ‘beauty’ and /y:/ as in üben ‘to practice.’ Our research aimed to answer the following questions: 1. In which learning environment do students make more improvement in vowel production during an 11-week period: on a Berlin Study Abroad (SA), living in the German House, or while taking German classes? And 2. To what extent do problems with production of umlauted vowels impact the way native speakers rate the pronunciation of learners’ vowels?

This project—part of a larger study conducted by my mentor, Dr. Smith, and her colleague, Dr. Hans Kelling—examines language gains in two1 different environments: foreign language housing and a traditional classroom setting. While much research has demonstrated that students make more language gains on SA than in the traditional classroom setting (Steven, 2001), few studies have examined pronunciation gains on study abroad, let alone comparing gains in various immersion environments. This lack of research on pronunciation gains in immersion environments is perhaps most surprising, since a native-like accent is considered by native speakers to be more important in judging the language competence of second language (L2) learners than perfect grammar (Flege et al. 1995; Mage, 1998). Elimination of a non-native accent is notoriously difficult for adult L2 learners (Strange et al. 2004). Moreover, students and faculty often assume that students will improve their pronunciation on SA. Comparing classroom versus SA settings, O’Brien (2003) found that students who spent an academic year in Freiburg produced /i:/, /y:/, and /u:/ more natively at the end of the year than their student counterparts at an American university. Aten and Smith (2009) have shown that even the type of SA program can impact pronunciation gains. Students on a language-oriented SA program made significantly more gains in global pronunciation, e.g., accentedness, fluency, and comprehensibility, than those in a culturally-oriented program where language use was substantially less each week. Since the type of SA program can impact pronunciation gains, how would another immersion setting such as the German House as part of BYU’s Foreign Language Student Residence impact pronunciation gains?

This study builds on this past research in two ways: 1. We compare different learning environments, e.g., the German House and a traditional classroom setting, and 2. We examine pronunciation of sounds that are notoriously difficult for learners of German. The aim of this project was to study whether students improve in their pronunciation of the eight rounded vowels, e.g., /ø:/ and /y:/ and their non-umlauted counterparts, /o:/ as in Ofen ‘oven’ and /u:/ as in Buch ‘book.’

To answer these research questions, the eight rounded vowels /o:/ Boot ‘boat,’ /ø:/ Goethe, /u:/ gut ‘good,’ /y:/ Brüder ‘brothers,’ /ʊ/ Mutter ‘mother,’ /Y/ Mütter ‘mothers,’ /ɔ/ Kopf ‘head,’ and /oe/ Köpfe ‘heads’ have been measured through pre-and post-test administered 11 weeks apart to students in two settings (the German House and the traditional classroom) to see specifically which sounds improve. For pre- and post-tests, students were recorded reading a passage (The Sun and the Wind) as well as 80 sentences highlighted the eight rounded vowels. Using the computer program Praat, I analyzed the vowels acoustically to determine specific places of improvement in terms of tongue height, tongue placement, and lip rounding for 12 students (6 from the German House, 6 from the classroom setting). I also analyzed the vowel production of 2 native speakers (1 male, 1 female) in order to compare the acoustic analyses in order to identify the extent to which problems with vowel productions have improved in each learning environment.

Currently, the data I collected and the vowels I analyzed in terms of tongue height, tongue placement, and lip rounding for these 12 students is with our statistician. Once I receive those statistics, I will compare each student’s progress (from the pre-test to the post-test) to the either the female or male native speaker’s vowels. My mentor and I are hoping to see the most progress with the students who live in the German House. My mentor also has data from students who went on study abroad in Berlin, and we will compare the students in my study to the students on study abroad to see whether or not living in the German House can provide a similar experience in terms of improving pronunciation, especially the eight rounded vowels. We anticipate to be finished by 8 November 2013.

Scholarly Sources:

  • Aten, Hillary and Laura Catharine Smith. (2009). “The effects of short-term study abroad on the second language pronunciation of German.” Paper presented at GLAC 2009, Banff, Alberta.
  • Flege, J. E., Munro, M. J., & MacKay, I. R. (1995). Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language. J. Acoust. Soc. Am, 97(5), 3125-3134.
  • Magen, Harriet, S. (1998). “The perception of foreign-accented speech.” Journal of Phonetics. 26.(4): 381-400.
  • O’Brien, Mary Grantham (2003). “Longitudinal development of second language German vowels.” Unpublished PhD Dissertation. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  • Steven, John Joseph. (2001). The acquisition of L2 Spanish pronunciation in a study abroad context. Unpublished dissertation University of Southern California.
  • Strange, W., Bohn, O. S., Trent, S. A., & Nishi, K. (2004). Acoustic and perceptual similarity of North German and American English vowels. JASA, 115, 1791-1807.