The Project FauvoT – a short description
FauvoT (= Fremdsprachenunterricht mit audio-vokalem Training, foreign language learning by means of a special sound perception training) is an interdisciplinary and joint inter-university project in the field of foreign language teaching and learning at the University of Graz, Austria, in conjunction with Graz University of Technology and a neuropathic hospital (Landesnervenklinik Sigmund Freud) in Graz.
In an era of communicative approaches to foreign language teaching, the project FauvoT wants to shift the focus back to the central role of auditory perception. Its aim is to evaluate the efficiency of an innovative approach to language teaching and learning that focuses on the influence of concentrated listening as a means of retraining the perceptual capacity of the learners and thereby accelerate language learning. This is achieved through the use of electronically modified audio-materials both in the classroom and in a home setting. The method can be integrated into e-learning platforms and portfolio-concepts and thus further contributes to enhancing learner autonomy.
Within the scope of this project, the pronunciation training has so far been tested in English and Russian pronunciation classes (attended by native speakers of Austrian German), in intensive Spanish, Italian, and French classes, and in German classes (for American learners) at an American University (for results, see “Selected Results”).
In order to test the efficiency of the method in a long-term study on a large scale we applied for an FWF Stand-alone project titled „Identifying relevant cues in L2 production and perception” in 2013. Such a study would enable us to generate extensive data (in a cooperation with a secondary technical school in Graz, HTL BULME) and, additionally, (in collaboration with Graz University of Technology), to develop automatized tools both for measuring the learners’ progress and the relevance of specific acoustic cues for the perception of foreign-accented speech.
In an era of communicative approaches to foreign language teaching, the project FauvoT wants to shift the focus back to the central role of auditory perception. Its aim is to evaluate the efficiency of an innovative approach to language teaching and learning that focuses on the influence of concentrated listening as a means of retraining the perceptual capacity of the learners and thereby accelerate language learning. This is achieved through the use of electronically modified audio-materials both in the classroom and in a home setting. The method can be integrated into e-learning platforms and portfolio-concepts and thus further contributes to enhancing learner autonomy.
Within the scope of this project, the pronunciation training has so far been tested in English and Russian pronunciation classes (attended by native speakers of Austrian German), in intensive Spanish, Italian, and French classes, and in German classes (for American learners) at an American University (for results, see “Selected Results”).
In order to test the efficiency of the method in a long-term study on a large scale we applied for an FWF Stand-alone project titled „Identifying relevant cues in L2 production and perception” in 2013. Such a study would enable us to generate extensive data (in a cooperation with a secondary technical school in Graz, HTL BULME) and, additionally, (in collaboration with Graz University of Technology), to develop automatized tools both for measuring the learners’ progress and the relevance of specific acoustic cues for the perception of foreign-accented speech.