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Using Minimal Pairs to Improve Auditory Discrimination Skills: A
Pilot Study
Jerome Gonzales Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School Washington, DC
Robin Lovrien Schwarz, Consultant in Adult ESOL
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What is a Minimal Pair?
A minimal pair: – Two words: One sound is different: cat/cut – The sound difference changes meaning:
pat/bat pat/pit pat/pad pate/pate pate/plate
Look at how grammar is often just a phoneme change:
talk/ talks talk/talked can/can’t we/we’veEat/ate her/hers he/he’s he’s/his
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Why Teach Minimal Pairs?
1. Adult language learners brains do not hear or process sound as efficiently as children’s brains do: Adults need more explicit instruction in the sound system of the language they are learning It is harder for adults to discriminate between sounds that are similar— e.g. cop/cup or sounds in L1 that are close to sounds in L2
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Why Teach Minimal Pairs?
2. Adult language learners often need to have their attention drawn to critical differences in sound that change meaning. In English, change of final sounds (-s; -t) change meaning just as initial or medial sounds do (pit/bit; pot/pat).
• Grammar changes are often just a change of a phoneme.
• Many of the usual “ESOL errors” are the result of not hearing small differences ( this/these)
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Why Teach Minimal Pairs?
3. Adult learners need to have accurate input to support the function of phonological memory
Fuzzy input leads to inexact recording of words and sounds
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Why Teach Minimal Pairs?
Minimal pair drills help learners increase reading accuracy
They recognize in writing what they are hearing. Their vocabulary increases
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The Pilot Study:
Jerome had two classes at the same level (Level 2 in his school)
PM class was the “treatment” group:+/- 12 students – Spanish/Amharic/Arabic/Chinese/Burmese– Varied education backgrounds – Two-plus hours’ day/5 days/week instruction
Practiced MP’s in some form every day
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The Study, Cont.
AM class was “control”
– +/- 20 students (24 fall, 19 winter)– Similar language mix, education
background etc. – Same instructional time– No formal minimal pair work/practice
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The Study, Cont.
Hypothesis:– If students had better perception of short
vowels, they would have stronger performance on level-appropriate oral/ receptive language tasks than the control group.
– Overall spelling improvement was NOT the goal, but was examined
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The Study
All students were evaluated in September:
All words to write were 1 syllable, regular CVC plus two sight words: the for
Receptive words were more complex in two tasks
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The Study: Tasks
Sentence dictation (5 sentences):• The clock has black hands.• Tom’s pants are red. Etc.
Word dictation (10 words--all short vowels, blends but no digraphs [ch/sh]) – Crop, drink, plod, spend, etc.
Same/different listening task (10 pairs of CVC words)
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The Study: Tasks
Sentence repetition (Up to 10 sentences, stopping at 5 if 3 or more incorrect--any error= incorrect.) – Magazines can be interesting. – The traffic was very bad today.
Interview: 5 questions (geared to information learners had practiced in Level 1)– How is the weather today?
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The Study:Rating of Tasks
Dictations:– Accuracy of phonological information
• (e.g. “hans” accepted for “hands” because the /d/ is subsumed by /n/ and /s/
– Completeness of phonological information (i.e. omissions or additions of sounds or words were noted: Cut/cuts; kurop/crop; spend/spin)
– Vowel and consonant errors counted separately – Spelling accuracy counted separately (as
positive,not negative score)
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The Study: Rating of Tasks
Same/different= right or wrong
Sentence repetition= right or wrong
Interview: – Whether student understood the question– Whether the answer was complete and/or
appropriate (e.g. What time is it? Is correctly answered 2:30, but not It 2:30)
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Doing Minimal Pair Practice
Examples:– Phoneme manipulation:
• Teacher says: bat Student changes to bit
– Listening classification:• Teacher says a word and number; Student puts
number in appropriate box:» a i
H--t 2
T--p 1
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Doing Minimal Pair Practice
Minimal pair sentences:• The bag/bug is on the table
Listen and write:– Teacher says one word, student writes the
other: T: black S: block
Dictation: limited to sounds practiced:– Tom had six big bags.
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Doing Minimal Pair Practice
“Reading” a o u
NOTE: This is NOT a vocabulary exercise!! Students
should be able to manipulate phonemes regardless of whether they know the words.
L--ck
C--p
T--m
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Comments on the Class Practice:
Jerome will describe how he did the practices and how the class reacted:
– ASK:• What was good?• What was hard?• MORE??
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Outcomes
Noticeable changes:– Total errors in sentences:
• TG: Time 1 Average= 13 Time 2 Av= 5.9• CG: Time 1 Average= 14.8 Time 2= Av=8.5
– Total errors in words:• TG: Time 1 Av. = 9 Time 2 Av.= 3.6• CG: Time 1 Av = 8.5 Time 2 Av. = 8
Note that the “treatment” group was small--almost half of the control-- so percentages are skewed:
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Outcomes:
Vowel accuracy--sentences: (errors) • TG: Time 1= Av 3 Time 2= Av 2.4 (majority
had 3 or below)• CG: Time 1= Av 3.75 Time 2 Av 2.5 (majority
had 1 error)
Vowel accuracy--words (errors)• TG: Time 1=Av 3.6 Time 2 Av= 4.5 (oops!)• CG: Time 1 Av 4.5 Time 2 Av= 4.8 (uh-oh!)
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Outcomes:
Consonant accuracy– Sentences (errors)
• TG: Time 1 Av= 3 (range 1-5) Time 2 Av= 1 (range 0-2) (HUH? vowels were practiced!)
• CG: Time 1 Av=5.6 (range1-12) Time 2 Av= 1.2
(Range 0-6) (A BIG change!)– Words: (errors)
• TG: Time 1 Av =4.1(range 1-9) Time 2 Av=.8 (range 0-4)
(Again, HUH?)• CG:Time 1 Av= 2.2 (range -7) Time 2 Av= 1.6(range 0-4)
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Outcomes
Other tasks:– Sentence repetition:
• TG- Small improvement: Time 1 3 0’sTime 2: Everyone got at least 1 sentence correct• CG-- No change
– Same/different• TG: slight improvement: Av 7.2--8.6 correct• CG: No change--Av 7.5--7.4 correct
– Interview questions • TG: Slight improvement- 83 % understood all T1, 100% T2;
50% answered 3 or more correctly time 1 vs. 62 % Time 2• CG: 65% understood all T1 vs. 77% Time 2; 43% answered
3 or more correct Time 1; 55% Time 2
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Outcomes
Spelling– Sentences
• TG: Average did not change, but range moved:– 10-24 correct T1 vs. 16--26 correct T2 (m=18 &24)– 83% had 50% or better T1; 100% had 50% or better
T2; 54% had 75% or better
• CG: Average changed: 15.4--20.1 but range barely moved: 7-27/8-26
– T2: 3 had 26/28 (also M) – T1 50% had 50% or better; T2 84% had 50% or
better
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Outcomes
Spelling– Words: Very slight change
• TG:T1 Av = 3.75 correct--83% (10/12) <
50% T2 Av = 4.2 correct--72%(8/11) <
50%• CG:
T1 Av = 3.45 100%< 50% correctT2 Av = 3.2 94%<50% correct
(18/19)
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Outcomes:
Improvement was seen in contextual spelling and understanding.
Single word comprehension and spelling was not much affected.
Consonant perception improved more than vowels, even though practice was with vowels!
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Comments:
SHOULD be improvement in skills over a semesterNot a complete trial with MP’sGroup not very bigStudents love it Needs to be done vigorously to get them over the “I think I know what I hear” stage
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Examples:
Phonemes affecting grammar:– Ben cut_ (cuts)the hot ham for lunch. – Six men ran (run) to the last bus.
Fuzzy input/fuzzy output:– Tom’s pans/pens (pants) are read (red).– Then/Pen(Ben) cup/cot (cut) the hat (hot)
hand/gem (ham) for lunch.