Are nonwords really superior to real words to train l2 sounds? Insights from an HVPT study on L2 English front vowels

2026/01/01 by Celia Gorba, Miquel Llompart, Pilar Prieto · 1 voice
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Neuroscience and Music Perception #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Reading and Literacy Development

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0142716426100836

openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the effects of a high-variability phonetic training (HVPT) regime using nonwords (NW), compared to a comparable regime using real words (RW), on the perception of English front vowels by L1-Catalan/Spanish learners. Participants completed pre-and posttest tasks targeting both pre-lexical (vowel identification of NW and RW) and phono-lexical processing (word-picture matching, WPM, and lexical decision, LD). Training consisted of six sessions of phoneme identification with either NW or RW stimuli. Results revealed that the RW group consistently outperformed the NW group, with significant differences in RW identification and WPM. Importantly, learning generalized to new speakers and items, particularly in the RW condition. Lexical tasks proved more challenging than pre-lexical ones, with lower overall scores and no significant gains in LD. These findings indicate that RW training produces stronger perceptual and phono-lexical gains than NW training, challenging findings from prior studies that favored NW-based regimes.

Citations

• British English: Received Pronunciation
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• L1-Spanish Speakers' Acquisition of the English /i /—/I/ Contrast: Duration-based Perception is Not the Initial Developmental Stage
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• Effects of experience on non-native speakers' production and perception of English vowels

Discussions

• Leaving work on a Friday like 🎉🥳🍻 #paperout With Celia Gorba and Pilar Prieto, we asked whether nonwords really are superior to real words for training L2 sounds, and found that real-word training [bsky, 4 points, 0 comments]

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