Second language learners' perceptions of their own recorded speech

The researchers found that the raters were able to identify the L2 speech quite successfully even when the samples had been modified to equalize the rate of speech. [...] After three to four weeks of training in identifying the two phonemes, the researchers found that the learners improved both in their ability to perceive the difference between /l/ and /r/ and in their ability to produce /l/ and /r/ accurately. [...] There is a lack of research in the area of pronunciation and a tendency for teachers and material developers to fail to make use of the research findings that do exist (Derwing & Munro, 2005). [...] Given the difficulties students seem to face in noticing their pronunciation errors on their own, current research in second language acquisition (SLA) on the effectiveness of form focused instruction, attention, and consciousness-raising has the potential to make a significant impact on the pronunciation classroom. [...] This ensured that the NNSs would not encounter words they didn’t know and that NSs would not be confused by the content of the sentences, which could have confounded the results of the experiment.