Title The effect of duolingo on l2 learners’ pronunciation: analysis of minimal pairs in russian speakers /
Translation of Title „Duolingo“ programėlės įtaka antros kalbos besimokančiųjų tarimui: rusakalbių minimalių porų analizė.
Authors Skerstonaitė, Viktorija
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Pages 50
Keywords [eng] Phonetics, Duolingo, MALL, L2 learning, pronunciation, vowels, formant frequencies, Russian, English, antros kalbos mokymasis, fonetiniai akustiniai kintamieji, balsių tarimas, rusų kalba, anglų kalba, Duolingo programėlė, fonetika
Abstract [eng] The present paper focuses on the acoustic analysis of Russian speakers’ vowel production before and after using Duolingo application. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of Duolingo application on Russian speaking learners of English, focusing on phonetic acquisition in the context of minimal pairs. The method chosen to achieve this objective is experimental analysis, using phonetic acoustic variables – formant frequencies (F1 and F2) and vowel duration, which were evaluated through spectrograms. Ten Russian speaking volunteers, divided into experiment and control groups participated in Pre and Post-Tests. The results observed in this experiment show that Duolingo application contributed to Russian speakers’ production of tense/lax vowel pairs /u/-/ʊ/ and /i/-/ ɪ/, with F1 and F2 frequency values closer to those of native American English, but no improvements were seen with a vowel sound /æ/. The duration of vowels did not see significant improvements, apart from vowel pair /u/-/ʊ/. This research contributes to the understanding of Duolingo’s phonetic training impact on L2 learners’ pronunciation. As language learning platforms’ aid for learners’ pronunciation is still under-researched area, this paper offers valuable insights into the phonetic influence of technology, and the need to study it further, employing various languages for the analysis.
Dissertation Institution Vilniaus universitetas.
Type Master thesis
Language English
Publication date 2024