Exploring the relationship between individual differences in cross-language perceived similarity and L2 vowel perception.

This paper explores the relationship between cross-linguistic perceived similarity and L2 vowel identification and discrimination at the individual level. The study also investigates if the perception of cross-linguistic similarity changes as a result of a 6-session perceptual training regime found to improve L2 perception. A group of Spanish-speaking learners of English in an instructional setting completed a perceptual assimilation task before and after training. The results indicated that learners varied in their choice of L1 match for English /ɪ/ and /ɑː/, but assimilation patterns were consistent for the remaining vowels. The outcome of a series of correlations and multiple regression analyses yielded some evidence that individual differences in L2 to L1 assimilation patterns predicted L2 perception. However, this was only found in a subset of cases. Further, perceptual training generally had little effect on cross-linguistic perceived similarity, except for changes involving /ɪ/, possibly related to increased metalinguistic awareness.