L’apport de la voix chantée pour l’intégration phonético-phonologique d’une langue étrangère : application auprès d’italophones apprenants de FLE

摘要

Specialists in didactics aim to create an efficient method, whose teaching / learning content and tools improve phonetic skills in foreign languages. As for the educational content, research studies have proved that sounds and phonemes of a foreign language are processed according to the structure of the phonetic and phonological space of the native language. Other works point out that it is particularly relevant to compare linguistic systems in order to predict future difficulties and abilities language learners will be confronted with. As for transmission tools, studies have shown the beneficial effects of interdisciplinarity and the pertinent role music plays on cognitive and learning development. Our research objective falls within this scientific context. Our purpose has been two-fold. First, we tried to identify which parameter, related to the production of the singing voice whilst separate from the speaking voice, may facilitate the perception of non-native vowels. Secondly, we aimed at comparing the effects on the ability to produce non-native vowels of two corrective phonetic methods, one of which used the “singing voice” tool. Through the results of these studies, we tried to understand how Italian as a native language interacts with the perception and the production of French as a target language. Our studies have shown that vowel pitch and duration do not impact the discrimination of /y/ and /ø/, and that the consonant sharpness plays a role on the discrimination of /y/ in a CV type syllable. We found a positive effect of the method, which uses singing-voice as a tool, on the production of the sound spectrum of French closed vowels, but not on the evolution of the sounds and phonemes into the acoustic space. Our results support the theory that phonetic teaching and learning is relevant in language classes and suggest that singing-voice may be a useful tool to ease the perception and the production of non-native vowels.