The role of musical abilities in the production of English /i/ and /ɪ/ by Catalan-Spanish speakers

Abstract

[eng] Recent studies suggest that musical expertise has positively influenced various aspects of speech perception and production of the second language (L2). The present study aims to demonstrate the relevance of having musical skills in the acquisition of L2 language, particularly in the production of two phonemes /i/ and /ɪ/. To do so, the study will focus on compare the speech production of these phonemes through two groups of participants, musicians and non-musicians, who, through a selection of words, must produce and discriminate between /i/ and /ɪ/, confirming the hypothesis that participants who have musical skills will obtain better phonemes results and discrimination skills compared to those participants who do not have musical skills. As it was hypothesized, results have shown that musicians were more phonetically accurate than non-musicians and that musical expertise may be closely connected to phonological awareness. These findings suggest that musical competence may have significant effects on language learning and may be exploited to create novel methods of language teaching. From this standpoint, more research is needed to confirm and further explain these findings.