Using Animation to Raise Phonetic Awareness of English Vowels Contrast in Russian L1 Schoolchildren

This study examines how Russian-speaking elementary school students perceive long and short English vowels [i:], [ɪ], [u:], and [ʊ], with a focus on the phonological challenges resulting from the differences between the English and Russian vowel systems. In English, vowel length and quality are phonemically distinctive, whereas in Russian, vowel length is not a contrastive feature. This discrepancy often creates difficulties for Russian-speaking learners in the early stages of English language acquisition. To solve this problem, the study presents a specially designed educational animated cartoon as the main pedagogical tool. The animation combines clear instructions, visual input, primary audio input (highlighting contrasting vowels in English speech) and secondary audio input (a metalinguistic device in the Russian-language voice-over) to improve students' phonemic awareness. The narrative format and interactive elements aim to facilitate both the perception and productive assimilation of English vowel length. At the same time, students' phonetic perception — their ability to hear and distinguish vowel contrasts. The experimental part of the study includes auditory discrimination tasks using minimal pairs. These tasks are designed to assess students’ ability to distinguish long and short vowels in varying phonetic contexts. Responses were analysed to identify common perceptual patterns and errors. Given the lack of exact equivalents for [i:], [ɪ], [u:], and [ʊ] in Russian, the articulatory and acoustic differences between the systems, Russian-speaking learners may misidentify or merge English vowel contrasts. The study explores how visual and auditory multimodal input can moderate these difficulties and promote accurate vowel perception. The proposed approach highlights the importance of incorporating engaging multimedia resources into early language instruction. It emphasises the value of combining listening and speaking practice within meaningful contexts to strengthen learners’ phonological competence. This research contributes to second language phonetics and offers practical recommendations for educators seeking innovative ways to improve pronunciation among Russian-speaking learners of English.