Listen-and-repeat training of non-native vowel quality: Preliminary findings from speakers of Namibian languages.

This article examines the effects of short-term listen-and-repeat training on the production of two non-native Swedish vowels, /y/ and /ʉ/, by adult speakers of various Namibian Bantu and Khoisan languages, whose native phonologies lack these vowel categories. Seventeen participants underwent training and their productions were acoustically analyzed and perceptually evaluated by 40 proficient Swedish listeners through an identification task. Results showed that while participants produced the vowel /ʉ/ close to the target before training, their production shifted away after initial training, and no significant changes occurred for /y/. Moreover, speakers did not develop a consistent or perceptually distinct contrast between the two vowels, with productions generally identified as /ʉ/. The study highlights considerable inter-speaker variation unrelated to language background and suggests that the amount and nature of training may have been insufficient for learning these non-native vowel contrasts.