Purpose: High-variability phonetic training (HVPT) has been found to be effective on adult
second language (L2) learning, but results are mixed in regards to the benefit of multiple …

Mandarin Chinese tones are known to be difficult for second language learners. A large
body of research has examined non-native perception of tones, and may provide useful and …

This study examines the putative benefits of explicit phonetic instruction, high variability
phonetic training, and their effects on adult nonnative speakers' Mandarin tone productions …

Lexical tones are widely believed to be a formidable learning challenge for adult speakers of
nontonal languages. While difficulties—as well as rapid improvements—are well …

Adult listeners often struggle to learn to distinguish speech sounds not present in their native
language. High-variability training sets (ie, stimuli produced by multiple talkers or stimuli that …

Talker variability has been reported to facilitate generalization and retention of speech
learning, but is also shown to place demands on cognitive resources. Our recent study …

Background High talker variability (ie, multiple voices in the input) has been found effective
in training nonnative phonetic contrasts in adults. A small number of studies suggest that …

Acquiring non-native speech contrasts can be difficult. A seminal study by Logan, Lively and
Pisoni (1991) established the effectiveness of phonetic training for improving non-native …

Contrary to studies on speech learning of consonants and vowels, the issue of individual
variability is less well understood in the learning of lexical tones. Whereas existing studies …

Purpose: This study investigated the efficacy of ultrasound biofeedback compared to a
traditional acoustic input–only method in the second-language (L2) production training of …