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address the contribution of service learning statistically. Only a few studies of Spanish language
have sought to incorporate quantitative measures of servicelearning outcomes, and results
indicated a statistically signicant increase in learners motivation and attitudes between pre and
postsurvey; however, a non-service learning control group was not included. Given the lack of
comparison between effects of participation and nonparticipation in service learning on
individual motivation and L2 development, this study was designed to measure the statistical
impact, if any, of a servicelearning language exchange program in a Spanish phonetics course
on participants L2 phonemic perception, and foreign language motivation.
Method
Participants
A group of 25 native English-speaking university students in a fth-semester Spanish
phonetics course voluntarily participated in this study, whom were recruited from two sections of
Spanish phonetics that were taught by the same professor, with no difference in textbook,
syllabus, and course content between the two sections during the time of the study. All subjects
had no previous extended (i.e., more than three months) experience abroad, and no statistically
signicant outlier performance on the perception test. Participants chose to participate in service
learning (SL) group or non-service learning (NSL) group. Each group consisted of eight majors
in Spanish, Spanish international trade, or Spanish education. In addition, there were four
Spanish minors in the SL group and ve Spanish minors in the NSL group. SL group consisted of
12 participants; NSL group consisted of 13 participants.
Measure/Instruments
Perception test. In order to examine participants phonemic perceptual sensitivity, a selfpaced computerized perception test was created and the test consisted of 100 Spanish words.
more markedly for the SL learners. However, no signicant differences surfaced between the
experimental and the control groups.
Discussion
There are some limitations to this study. The short duration of language exchange
sessions may not have been sufcient to affect changes in participants perception and
motivation. Only a small portion of the 60-minute conversation session each week of the nineweek program was devoted to receiving L2 input from the native Spanish-speaking exchange
partners. Designing sessions of longer duration may produce different results.
A replication study with a larger participant pool is recommended to more decisively
determine whether group (SL vs. NSL) is a predictor variable of perception performance in the
greater population. The sample size of 12 and 13 students per group was small and made
signicant differences between groups less likely to arise. A larger sample of students may yield
statistically signicant ndings between groups.
Although there was no statistically signicant difference between the experimental and
control groups, learners in both groups experienced a signicant change in L2 perception and
motivation, suggesting that perhaps it was the phonetics course itself rather than service learning
in Spanish that inuenced L2 perception and motivation. To verify this possibility, a future study
might include a group that receives no L2 phonetics instruction at all in the study.
Evaluation
Although not mentioned in the article, it seems nonequivalent control-group design was
used in this study because subjects could choose to participate in SL group or NSL group, instead
of being randomly assigned to groups. Hence, besides aforementioned limitations, threats to the
internal validity of this study might exist. Further improvement is worth exploring.