THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VOICE ONSET TIME PATTERN OF INITIAL VOICELESS STOPS OF ENGLISH BY BRAZILIAN LEARNERS FROM SALVADOR, BRAZIL: EFFECTS OF EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION

Abstract In this work, we investigate the effect of explicit pronunciation instruction on the development of the Voice Onset Time (VOT) pattern of initial voiceless English stops by learners from Salvador, Brazil. The study included three data collections, a pre-test, an immediate post-test and a postponed post-test, from 16 learners, divided into control and experimental groups, and with an explicit instruction session on the production of the English stops. Acoustic analyses of VOT are reported. The results revealed that the control group, which received no instruction, did not produce the expected VOT pattern for English at any time of the study. On the other hand, in the experimental group, which received explicit instruction, we could perceive a considerable increase in the duration of the L2 stops. Our data reveal positive effects of explicit pronunciation instruction for the development of English VOT and are in line with Sancier and Fowler (1997) and Kupske (2016), who state that BP speakers are able to achieve productions that are statistically close to what is expected for English, at least as far as VOT is concerned.

摘要
本研究探讨显性语音教学对巴西萨尔瓦多地区学习者英语词首清塞音嗓音起始时间（Voice Onset Time, VOT）模式养成的影响。本研究共纳入16名学习者，分为对照组与实验组，先后开展三次数据采集：前测、即时后测与延迟后测；实验组额外接受了针对英语塞音发音的显性语音教学环节。本研究报告了针对VOT的声学分析结果。结果显示，未接受任何教学的对照组在本研究的全部阶段均未产出符合英语规范的VOT模式。与之相对，接受显性语音教学的实验组的第二语言（Second Language, L2）塞音时长出现了显著提升。本研究数据证实，显性语音教学对英语VOT模式的养成具有积极作用，这一结果与Sancier与Fowler（1997）、Kupske（2016）的研究结论一致：二者指出，巴西葡萄牙语（Brazilian Portuguese, BP）使用者能够产出在统计学层面接近英语规范的发音，至少在VOT维度上如此。