Improving Spanish L1 learners' perception and production of Estonian vowels

Abstract

This study tests the effectiveness of a CAPT tool tailored for Spanish L1 learners of Estonian to practice the perception and production of Estonian vowels. The tool is designed to train seven vowel contrasts (/i-y/, /u-y/, /ɑ-o/, /ɑ-æ/, /e-æ/, /o-ø/, and /o-ɤ/) that have been shown to be difficult for Spanish L1 learners. When practicing with the CAPT tool the learners first see a theoretical video followed by four training modes: exposure, discrimination, pronunciation and mixed. To assess the effectiveness of the tool an experiment combining training sessions with the tool and pre- and post-testing was conducted. The results show that on the whole the learners’ perception and production improved significantly after the training period, suggesting that CAPT tools are an effective resource for pronunciation practice.