Editorial/Éditorial

The past decade has witnessed a steady increase in research on foreign- or second-language (L2) speech perception and production targeting varied populations of speakers, using different languages in various linguistic, educational, social, and political contexts. However, most of this research – whether it is carried out in areas of speech pathology, speech science, linguistics, psychology, or cognitive science – has been largely theoretical and has not been targeted toward researchers and teachers interested in the pedagogical aspects of L2- pronunciation teaching and learning. Motivated by this observation and the recent growth of research in the area, this special issue of the Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes (CMLR/RCLV) emphasizes the pedagogical implications and applications of research to L2 speech perception and production.

The conceptualization and planning of this issue coincided with the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech (New Sounds 2013), an event founded by Allan James and Jonathan Leather, in 1990. Organized by Walcir Cardoso and Pavel Trofimovich, New Sounds was hosted, for the first time on North American soil, at Concordia University, in Montreal, in May 2013. The purpose of this international meeting was to bring together academics (e.g., theoretical and applied phonologists) and practitioners (e.g., language teachers, speech pathologists, materials designers) to discuss issues concerning the acquisition of L2 pronunciation (including speech perception and production). Due to the common interests and goals of New Sounds and this CMLR/RCLV special issue, a call for papers was publicized during the event, which triggered a high number of submissions from the conference delegates. As a result, this issue of the CMLR/RCLV includes a small selection of the papers presented at New Sounds 2013, which is a snapshot of the state-of-the-art research being conducted by L2 phonologists in Canada and worldwide. The international scope of the issue is reflected in unique data, collected in five different countries (Canada, Germany, Poland, Spain, USA), from a variety of language perspectives: six different first/native languages (Basque, Catalan, English, French, Polish, and Spanish) and three target L2s (English, German, and Spanish). In addition, the papers included in this issue involve a variety of learning contexts, such as study-abroad (Hardison), computer-enhanced (Gómez Lacabex & Gallardo; Cebrian & Carlet; Kissling), and the traditional language classroom (Baran-Łucarz; Uribe, Cedergren, & Payeras). The target learningfeatures range from lower-level phonetic features, such as [continuancy] and VOT (Cebrian & Carlet and Kissling, respectively) and segments (e.g., Gómez et al.; Kissling), to higher-level phonological phenomena, such as across-word resyllabification (Uribe et al.) and more holistic oral skills (Hardison; Uribe et al.). In line with the main goal of this issue, these papers emphasize the pedagogical implications and applications of research in L2 speech production (Hardison; Uribe et al.) and perception (Gómez et al.; Cebrian & Carlet) and focus on the direct or indirect interplay of these two components of phonological knowledge (Baran-Łucarz; Kissling; Uribe et al.).

Overview

The issue consists of six papers reporting empirical research in which L2 speech perception and production are investigated with the goal of enhancing L2 pronunciation pedagogy in a variety of learning environments, from several theoretical perspectives. The first article, by Hardison, reports the results of a study conducted among anglophone US students learning German in a study-abroad context. A post-study analysis of a rating protocol that measured pronunciation, fluency, grammar, vocabulary, and accentedness revealed positive changes in the learners’ general oral communication skills in the target language and in their socio-affective profile (e.g., anxiety to communicate in the L2). In addition, the diversity of the students’ experiences abroad (e.g., their interaction with grandmothers and their grandchildren, the number of hours spent while abroad in extended conversation with native speakers of the target language) offered the necessary challenges and positive affect to the learners’ linguistic and social development. The author concludes by suggesting that enriching the L2 contact experience, via face-to face encounters or electronically, “may have long-lasting benefits for learners and language programs in terms of building cross-cultural interest and...