SESSION 3A

Jason Hughes, University of Wollongong
An exploration on the physicality of speech: learning new phoneme consonants in L2 English and L2 Spanish using dual-coding theory and a primal imagen

Abstract
This research proposal, ‘An exploration on the physicality of speech: learning to pronounce new phoneme consonants in L2 English and L2 Spanish using dual-coding theory and a primal imagen’, has been approved by the Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee at (UOW) and will commence in SPAN151 in week 5 autumn session, and in English ALS intake 3 2018.

Over the past decade, primarily through advancements in genome research, definitions of what it means to be human have changed significantly; our metamorphosis to where we (our species) is today is clearer than ever. Speech plays an interesting role in this transformation, particularly as the basic need to discriminate between never before heard or uttered phonemes in second language acquisition remains the identical challenge as that experienced thousands and thousands of years ago.

This contrastive language research will focus on a pronunciation activity for the English phoneme consonants /d/, /ð/ and /θ/ for native Mandarin speakers and the Spanish phoneme consonants /r/ and /x/ (Spanish jota, also expressed in /gi/ and /ge/) for native English speakers. Dual-coding theory (DCT) will be incorporated with a primal imagen, which may stimulate memory (cognition) and accurate reproduction of the phoneme.

The primal imagen will be a native Australian animal that to some degree resembles the sound of the considered phoneme. The imagen was selected because of its ancient connection to human existence in Australia. Students can process the image with their own cultural interpretation. Vocabulary will be relevant to the content of both courses.

Bio
Currently subject coordinator of English for Tertiary Studies (ETS) Academic Listening & Speaking at UOW College and tutor in Spanish at University of Wollongong. I hold a research masters in information management from Monash University and have held numerous teaching and research positions at ABC Television, PROV, UOW and the University of Piura, where I tutored in the Education Faculty.