The effects of learner characteristics and beliefs on usage of ASR-CALL systems
- 1. The Effects of Learner Characteristics and Beliefs on Usage of ASR-CALL Systems EUROCALL 2019 Gemma Artieda & Bindi Clements
- 2. 03 Participants 06 Discussion 01 Literature Review and Study Aims 02 05 Research Questions Results 07 Conclusion 04 Instruments 08 References
- 3. Key Literature & Study Aims
- 4. The Promise of ASR-CALL • Recent development of ASR systems specifically for language learning. • Increased opportunities for individual practice and personalised feedback to fill gap in the classroom (Levis, 2007). • ASR-CALL has measurable impact on pronunciation skills (Golonka, Bowles, Frank, Richardson, & Freyniket, 2014). • ASR-CALL can be an important tool for developing learner autonomy (McCrocklin, 2016).
- 5. Beliefs & Perceptions for Pronunciation Skills • Age and immersion time in the language, but also learner’s attitude, significantly correlate to degree of foreign accent (Moyer, 2007). • Emotion (anxiety) and motivation can affect the acquisition of second language speech (Saito, Dewaele, Abe & In’name, 2018) • Perception of difficulty of pronunciation skills linked to L1/nationality (cf. Cenoz & Lecumberri, 1999; Simon & Taverniers, 2011). • Some beliefs regarding effective learning strategies linked to L1/nationality (Nowacka, 2012). • Belief that adult learners cannot achieve ‘native-like’ pronunciation (Marinova-Todd, Marshall, & Snow, 2000). • Beliefs and perceptions about ASR-CALL can be influenced (Borges, 2014).
- 6. Study Aims • To understand student beliefs about the effectiveness of ASR-CALL activities for improving pronunciation. • To identify differences in feature usage of ASR-CALL activities according to (a) age and (b) L1/nationality. • To identify differences in student beliefs and perceptions about CALL- ASR according to (a) age and (b) L1/nationality.
- 8. Research Questions 1. Do students think pronunciation activities with ASR help them improve their pronunciation? 2. Do students in four countries (China, Vietnam, Italy and Saudi Arabia) make different use of ASR activity features? 3. Are there differences between age groups and L1/nationality in students’ beliefs and perceptions on learning pronunciation using ASR?
- 9. Participants
- 10. Participants: Unique Students China Beijing x2 Vietnam Ho-Chi-Minh x2 Saudi Arabia Jeddah x1 Italy Rome x1 1,153 1,192 171 Total 2,867351
- 11. Participants: Surveys China Beijing x2 Saudi Arabia Jeddah x1 Italy Rome x1 153 175 86 Total 48571 Vietnam Ho-Chi-Minh x2
- 12. Distribution of Survey Participants 1% 11% 50% 30% 7% 1% 0% 12% 39% 23% 17% 5% 3% 0% 48% 14% 25% 11% 2% 0% 0% 7% 4% 23% 15% 30% 11% 10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 16-18 19-22 23-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 60+ China Vietnam Saudi Arabia Italy
- 13. Instruments
- 15. Read and Record
- 16. Conversation
- 17. RQ1 Survey Question on Effectiveness • RQ1 I think having pronunciation feedback helps me improve my pronunciation. Yes/no, if no, why?
- 18. RQ2 Survey Questions on Feature Use • Did you listen to the model answer? Always / Sometimes / Never • Did you listen to your own recording? Always / Sometimes / Never
- 19. RQ3 Survey Questions on Learning L2 Pronunciation Source/Adapted from Statement Kaypak & Ortaçtepe (2014), Borges (2014), Horwitz (1985), Yang (1999), Borges (2014) I believe that I will eventually be able to speak English very well. New item I can use technology to help me improve my pronunciation. Meerleer (2012), Rieger (2009), Borges (2014) I feel at ease when I have to speak English. Meerleer (2012), Rieger (2009), Borges (2014) I feel insecure about my pronunciation. Horwitz (1985), Yang (1999), Nowacka (2012), Moyer (1999), Sobkowiak (2002), Borges (2014) It is important for me to speak English with an excellent English pronunciation. Meerleer (2012), Rieger (2009), Borges (2014) I am happy with my pronunciation as long as people can understand me.
- 21. RQ1 I think having pronunciation feedback helps me improve my pronunciation 91.5% China 95.2% Saudi Arabia 98.8% Vietnam 98.5% Italy 95% Global
- 22. RQ1 I think having pronunciation feedback helps me improve my pronunciation • Students who have positive beliefs and attitudes towards learning L2 pronunciation are expected to engage more in feature use. • Students perceptions and beliefs about L2 language learning seem to have a powerful impact on L2 acquisition (Borges, 2014) • Dearth of research on learner beliefs and pronunciation; shift towards looking at the socio-cultural environment rather than to the cognitive aspects of SLA (Li & Ruan, 2015)
- 23. Value China Vietnam Saudi Arabia Italy N 39,009 60,229 21,833 9,558 Mean 1.86 1.79 1.43 1.43 Median 1.00 2.00 1.00 1.00 Maximum 46 43 21 15 # of values >10 47 21 5 5 % of abnormal attempts 3.13% 1.75% 1.57% 1.11% RQ2 Feature Usage: # of Attempts Student behavior We configured 2 retries, so Students had 3 attempts. As we can see from the actual data in our servers, in all countries the average number of attempts was below 2, even if there was a % of abnormal behaviour by which a fraction of Students attempted more times than they were allowed to (4 attempts or higher)
- 24. RQ2 Feature Usage: Listening to Model Audios 82% 82% 57% 41% 73% 15% 15% 30% 37% 22% 1% 2% 11% 4% 4% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% China Vietnam Saudi Arabia Italy Total Always Sometimes Never
- 25. RQ2 Feature Usage: Listening to Own Recordings 66% 80% 61% 57% 71% 30% 18% 30% 21% 25% 3% 0% 8% 4% 3% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% China Vietnam Saudi Arabia Italy Total Always Sometimes Never
- 26. RQ2 Do students in four countries (China, Vietnam, Italy and Saudi Arabia) make different use of ASR activity features? • Attempts: Students using number of attempts as expected. Confirms expectations that students with L1 further from English use more attempts. Students will use the necessary number of attempts – they will not use all attempts if they do need to. • Listening to model audios: Remarkable differences. May be related to distance of L1 from target language or beliefs about learning strategies for pronunciation (cf. Nowacka 2012). • Listening to own recordings: Fewer differences. May be related again to beliefs about learning strategies.
- 27. RQ3 Age & Beliefs and Perceptions about L2 Pronunciation: Age Groups 35% 32% 34% 16-22 23-30 31-60+ 66% of participants were young adults
- 28. Kruskall-Wallis test results for beliefs and perceptions about L2 pronunciation and age
- 29. Kruskall-Wallis test results for beliefs and perceptions about L2 pronunciation and age
- 30. RQ3 Age & Beliefs and Perceptions about L2 Pronunciation: Age • “I believe that I will eventually be able to speak very well” – only item with a medium effect size favourable to the youngest age group. • Age-related declines in perception and production of L2 sounds (Flege, 1991; Ioup et al., 1994; Flege & MacKay, 2004; Moyer, 2014). • Negative impact of age because of other factors that co-vary with age: sociopsychological factors (Marinova-Todd et al., 2000; Moyer, 2007), affect (Dörnyei & Skehan, 2003), motivation, formal instruction, opportunities for authentic input (Moyer, 2007).
- 31. RQ3 L1 & Beliefs and Perceptions about L2 Pronunciation: L1s 32% 36% 18% 15% Chinese Vietnamese Arabic Italian
- 32. Kruskall-Wallis test results for beliefs and perceptions about L2 pronunciation and L1s/nationality
- 33. Kruskall-Wallis test results for beliefs and perceptions about L2 pronunciation and L1s/nationality
- 34. RQ3 Age & Beliefs and Perceptions about L2 Pronunciation: L1/Nationality • Large differences in pronunciation learning goal: intelligibility or excellence? (Saudi and Vietnamese) • Medium differences in self-efficacy (Saudi, Vietnamese) and feeling at ease when speaking (Vietnamese, Saudi). • Research emphasizes the need to treat some affective variables as learning context-dependent variables, such as motivation (Ryan, 2009) or emotion (Mendez & Fabela, 2014) • Japanese learners display low levels of motivation (Nakata, 2006; Kubota, 2002), high levels of anxiety in Chinese learners (Jiang & Dewaele, 2019) • Other studies have not found differences (Nowacka, 2012) in beliefs of L1 Polish, Italian & Spanish. Easier for speakers of Indo-European languages to learn English (Hakuta, Butler & Witt, 2000).
- 35. Conclusions
- 36. • Learners were overwhelmingly positive towards ASR-CALL activities in terms of helping improve their pronunciation. • Differences in feature usage were observed between students of different L1s/nationalities. • These differences may be explained by differences in learner beliefs. • When designing ASR-CALL activities, learner beliefs may impact feature usage. • Differences in language learning perceptions and beliefs were observed between students of different age groups and L1s/nationalities. More apparent when L1s/nationalities are not Indo-European. • Ultimately, pronunciation beliefs can be influenced to improve effective learning (Borges, 2014), learner attitudes toward L2 pronunciation contribute to learning goals and outcomes (Setter & Jenkins, 2005) and motivation and emotion can have a direct impact on acquisition (Saito et al., 2018). Conclusions
- 37. References
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