Teaching and researching French nasal vowels: The pros and cons of online training modalities for improving perception and production

Nasal vowels present a unique challenge to adult first language (L1) English speakers learning French as a second language (L2) due to the lack of phonemic distinction in their L1 as well as acoustic and articulatory factors that mute the salient phonetic differences. Perceiving the distinctions among French nasal vowels can thus represent a struggle for both L2 French learners and their teachers. Adding to this challenging situation, language teachers report a lack of time and expertise as reasons for neglecting pronunciation instruction. In this paper I evaluate the usefulness of online training modalities to confront the interrelated challenges of training nasal vowel distinctions in an experimental context and increasing effective pronunciation instruction in the classroom context. Taking the empirical perspective, I describe a study using high variability phonetic training (HVPT) embedded in online lessons to improve learners’ ability to distinguish among French nasal vowels. Turning to the pedagogical perspective, I discuss the capacity of these asynchronous online platforms to provide effective pronunciation instruction in the L2 French classroom. Taken together, this discussion forms a critical analysis of online modalities in research and how they might be applied pedagogically as a means of mitigating their potential downsides.