Effects Of High Variability Phonetic Training On Perception And Production Of English Segments By Sichuan EFL Learners

Phonetic training is an important part of foreign language learning,yet it is easily neglected in the teaching environment where the written exam is the main testing tool.As a phonological training method,high variability phonetic training(HVPT)has received much attention in recent years.However,most of the existing studies selected high-level adult learners as the subjects,and few chose high school students.Moreover,there is no conclusive evidence on whether phonological perception training can promote production.The present study attempts to extend the HVPT approach to Sichuan high school students and to explore its effects on production.The study took an empirical approach to examine the effect of HVPT on perception and production of Sichuan high school students with different proficiency levels and whether the training effects can be retained in the delayed posttest which was held one week after the training.Accordingly,three questions were addressed in this study:(1)Can HVPT facilitate Sichuan high school students’ perception of certain English segments? And can the training effects be retained one week after the training?(2)Can HVPT facilitate Sichuan high school students’ production of certain English segments? And can the training effects be retained one week after the training?(3)Does language proficiency level affect the training outcome?In this study,120 students were selected from a high school in Nanchong,Sichuan.The students were divided into high-and low-level learners based on their English scores on the high school entrance examination.They were then randomly assigned to the experiment group and the control group.Among them,60 students of the experiment group(30 in high level and 30 in low level)were required to take all the tests as well as training sessions,while 58 students of the control group(29 in high level and 29 in low level,2 dropped out halfway)were only required to take all tests.There was no significant difference between the scores of the two groups.The experimental period was 11 days which included pretest,training,immediate posttest,and delayed posttest.The following results were obtained from the experiment and data analysis:(1)HVPT could facilitate Sichuan high school students’ perception of certain English segments.And the training effects could be retained one week after training.(2)HVPT could facilitate Sichuan high school students’ production of certain English segments.And the training effects could be retained one week after training.(3)Language proficiency level does not affect students’ learning outcomes.After a series of discussions,it was found that HVPT is an effective phonological training method and this training effect is not affected by students’ proficiency levels;HVPT can effectively improve Sichuan high school students’ perception and production of English segments and this training effect could be generalized to novel speakers and novel items;this training effect could be retained one week after the training.The thesis concludes with some pedagogical implementations,research limitations,and some possible directions for subsequent research.