Metacognition in Second Language Speech Perception and Production

Abstract

In this study, we assessed metacognition in nonnative language speech perception and production. Spanish novice learners of French identified and produced the French vowel contrast /ø/–/œ/ and, on each trial, rated their confidence in their responses. Participants’ confidence in perception predicted their identification accuracy, suggesting that novice learners’ metacognitive skills in nonnative speech perception are efficient at the onset of language learning. However, participants’ confidence in production did not align with a fine-grained precision measure of their own production (indexed by Mahalanobis distance to the native French target-vowel space) nor with a categorical measure of production (in terms of being within/outside the native speakers’ zone), indicating that metacognition in nonnative sound production is not yet efficient in novice learners. Overall, confidence ratings were similar and highly correlated between the perception and production tasks, but there was no association between the two domains in task performance or metacognitive ability. We discuss the ramifications of these findings for language learning theories and language teaching strategies as well as for the ongoing debate about the perception–production relationship.