Role of Visual Speech Cues (Cued Speech) in Foreign Language Learning by Hearing School-Age Children

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to determine the role of visual speech cues in the process of foreign ‎language learning by hearing school-age children. Our experiments used Cued Speech, a method ‎designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We expected that the principles of the ‎method might also be beneficial for people with normal hearing because they may help distinguish ‎the sounds of foreign speech that are difficult to hear. This study mainly focused on the effects ‎of speech perception. We tested 126 Polish junior high school students (66 girls and 60 boys) ‎with a normal range of phonemic hearing and language aptitude. We envisaged that foreign ‎language learners using visual speech cues would achieve a higher score on a test of foreign ‎language than learners who had studied the language in the traditional manner. We also ‎formulated a hypothesis concerning the interaction of training type and training conditions on the ‎effectiveness of foreign language learning: that the difference in the effects of foreign language ‎learning between participants who received visual or executive training and typical training would ‎be more significant in the presence of auditory distractors than in their absence. We observed ‎interactions between conditions and types of training for speech sound identification. Under ‎conditions of auditory distraction, foreign language learners using Cued Speech scored ‎significantly higher than learners who had traditional training.‎