Visualization In Mobile-Assisted Language Learning(MALL)

The rapid advancement of mobile technologies has brought great potential for computer-assisted pronunciation training(CAPT).Inspired by the theory of skill acquisition and the model of Information Feedforward and Information Feedback loop,the current study attempted to discover the potential of digital zoom technology as a visual reinforcement technique(VRT)in the instruction of foreign language learners’ segmental production,along with learners’ attitudes towards their in-class experience with the technique-assisted pronunciation teaching.Participants were 40 Chinese university students with no prior experience of learning Spanish specially recruited as two classes for the study.Four Spanish consonants with salient articulatory gestures were chosen,namely,the trill /r/,post-vocalic /l/,dental fricatives(/θ/ and /(?)/),with which most Chinese learners have difficulty pronouncing.The whole study was carried out in an introductory FL Spanish course over two weeks,adopting a cross-over design.Both analytic-linguistic and intuitive-imitative approaches were applied.Specifically,in the experimental class,a tablet was used by the teacher to provide augmented visual feedforward of her articulatory gestures in both the instruction of the target consonants new to Chinese learners and the practice part where students also used application with digital zoom installed on their smartphones for magnified visual self-feedback.During the teaching for the control class,traditional analytic-linguistic approach was adopted for explicit instruction and audio-only intuitiveimitative approach for students’ practice.Two post-tests were administered to assess the participants’ production after the session,followed by an articulatory awareness quiz to test their articulatory awareness.Then sampling interviews were arranged based on tests results.According to results of the production test,the experimental group’s production of the postvocalic /l/ and the dental fricatives(/θ/ and /(?)/)were significantly better than the control group,but no such significance found in their production of the trill /r/.Results of the articulatory awareness quiz and interviews demonstrated that VRT strategy was helpful in terms of guiding participants’ attention to their articulatory gestures but not in imparting explicit knowledge compared with analytic-linguistic approach.And data revealed overall positive attitudes towards this new method by most students.The findings,therefore,confirmed the synergistic effect of teacher’s information feedforward and students’ self-feedback provided by VRT in aid of traditional intuitive-imitative and analytic-linguistic approaches in foreign language pronunciation teaching.