Embodied Prosodic Training Helps Improve Accentedness and Suprasegmental Accuracy

Abstract

Abstract With increasing evidence in favour of embodied learning techniques, more research is needed to explore eventual applications in the field of second language acquisition, for example, the effect of embodied training on phonological learning. This study investigated how pronunciation was affected by visuospatial hand gestures depicting speech rhythm and intonation during the oral repetition of logatomes (i.e. a series of identical nonsense CV syllables that maintain prosodic structure intact). Seventy-five Catalan learners of French participated in three training sessions with short dialogues, in one of three conditions: speech-only, non-embodied logatome, and embodied logatome. Before and after the training period, participants carried out an identical pre- and posttest which consisted of reading four dialogues aloud. Their oral output was evaluated in terms of fluency, comprehensibility, accentedness, and suprasegmental and segmental features by three native French speakers. While all three groups significantly improved in all measures after training, the embodied logatome group improved significantly more in terms of accentedness and suprasegmental features compared with the speech-only group, while the non-embodied logatome group did not.