The effect of oral repetition during discrimination training on L2 perceptual learning

Abstract Understanding how production and perception interact in second language (L2) phonetic learning remains an open question, with conflicting evidence about the role of production in perceptual training. This study investigates the effects of the timing of production during discrimination training on learning the English /l/–/r/ contrast. Forty-six Japanese learners of English were assigned to one of three training groups: Production-first group, where participants repeated a stimulus before answering a perceptual question; Production-last group, where participants repeated a stimulus after answering a perceptual question; and Perception-only group, where no production was involved. All groups completed a discrimination task before and after training. Results revealed that the Perception-only and Production-first groups significantly improved discrimination accuracy while the Production-last group did not. These findings suggest that although repeating a stimulus during discrimination training does not always disrupt learning, perception-only training consistently brings about better learning outcomes in L2 perception.