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One of the main challenges individuals face when learning an additional language (L2) is learning its sound system, which includes learning to perceive L2 sounds accurately. High variability phonetic training (HVPT) is one method that has proven highly effective at helping individuals develop robust L2 perceptual categories, and recent meta-analytic work suggests that multitalker training conditions provide a small but statistically reliable benefit compared to single talker training. However, no study has compared lower and higher variability multitalker conditions to determine how the number of talkers affects training outcomes, even though such information is crucial for optimizing HVPT. In this study, we compared 2-talker and 6-talker training conditions for L2 Spanish stop consonants, which we also compared to a control group that did not receive HVPT. Despite high performance overall, the experimental groups improved more and demonstrated greater generalization than the control group, but neither experimental group outpaced the other. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of HVPT.
Nagle et al. (Thu,) studied this question.