54 research outputs found

    Korean Americans as Speakers of English: the Acquisition of General and Regional Features

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    This dissertation addresses Korean Americans as speakers of English and as a unified speech community, exploring the nature and extent of sociolinguistic stratification of the English used by Korean Americans in Philadelphia. The acquisition of three linguistic features is investigated: word-medial /t/ flapping, the use of discourse markers, and the regional feature of Philadelphia short a. Statistical analyses examine these features for the effects of linguistic factors and social factors such as age, sex, occupation, age of arrival in the US, length of stay in the US, and English education. Age of arrival shows a very strong effect on flapping: immigrants who arrived in the US as children and US-born immigrants both showed a very high degree of flapping, while Korean-born adult immigrants acquired flapping to a much lesser degree. Style is also analyzed to determine whether speakers show variation along the formality continuum. In addition to production, the perceptual component of English use by the speakers is examined through a perception test. The perception test, administered to native English speakers, elicits judgments of English nativeness and ethnic identity of the Korean Americans. The results of the perception test are correlated with the production results of the linguistic features. In general, Korean Americans show varying degrees of acquisition of the three features according to sociolinguistic factors. Although the speakers exhibit stylistic variation, they have not acquired the Philadelphia dialectal feature of short a. The perception test reveals that English nativeness is accurately judged but that ethnic identification is problematic for listeners. The correlation of perception and production is positive in that an increase in the presence of the native linguistic features in the speech being judged is correlated with increased perception of the degree of English nativeness. The three features examined are not taught through formal explicit instruction to either native or non-native English speakers, which implies that speakers must engage in face-to-face interaction with native speakers in order to acquire these native speech community norms

    The Influence of Turkish Regional Dialects on L2 English Speech Production

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    It is widely known that the development of L2 speech perception and production is influenced by the L1 phonological system (Zampini, 2008). Current models of L2 speech learning propose a number of mechanisms that explain such phenomena, such as the existence of a shared L1-L2 phonological space (e.g., Speech Learning Model [SLM]; Flege, 1995), early perceptual attunement to L1 phonology (Perceptual Assimilation Model L2 [PAM-L2]; Bohn & Best, 2007), and the idea that the L1 represents the initial state for L2 learning (Second Language Linguistic Perception [L2LP]; Escudero, 2005). Despite strong theoretical understandings of how L1 phonology influences L2 production, our knowledge of how between-speaker variation in the L1 influences the L2 remains less well established. For example, research confirms the influence of L1 regional dialects on L2 speech perception (Chládková & Podlipský 2011; Escudero & Williams 2012), but research focusing on the influence of L1 regional dialects on L2 speech production has revealed only partial effects (Marinescu, 2012; Simon et al. 2015). There is a clear need, then, for further investigation into the precise dynamics of how structured L1 variation influences the outcomes of L2 speech production. This thesis investigates the influence of regional dialect on L2 English speech production focusing specifically on L1 Turkish speakers from two different regional dialect backgrounds. First, I carried out acoustic phonetic analysis investigating the nature of regional variation between İstanbul Turkish and Trabzon Turkish speakers (N=28) in terms of the production of vowels, and the voiced affricate. Second, I examined the role of regional dialect in L2 English speech production by comparing the same dialect groups of Turkish together with Standard Southern British English (SSBE) speakers. Fourteen speakers for each dialect group (N=42) aged 18-35 were recruited for speech production experiments in Trabzon, İstanbul, and Lancaster. The acoustic phonetic analysis of regional variation in Turkish shows that the production of low vowels and fronting mechanisms differ between the two target regions. However, high vowels, acoustic correlates of lip rounding, and durational features show similarities between the two regional dialects. In terms of voiced affricate production in Turkish, there are no significant L1 dialect differences, but there remain overall effects of word position and vowel context. I interpret these findings according to the socio-phonetic/linguistic contexts of the target regions. The findings on L1 dialect variation are then used to investigate differences in L2 speech production. There is no regional dialect influence on L2 speech production of the voiced affricate, which is expected given the lack of differences between dialects in L1 Turkish. Yet, the results find that acoustic realization of /dʒ/ is different between L1 Turkish and SSBE speakers. There is evidence of L1 dialect effects on L2 production of English vowels, such that the tense -lax contrast /ɪ/ -/i:/ in L2 English is smaller in magnitude for speakers of Trabzon than speakers of İstanbul, with both groups showing smaller distinctions than SSBE speakers. The /ɜː/ vowel shows L1 dialect effects on L2 English despite the lack of regional dialect differences in the L1. The regional dialect differences found for /ʌ/ and /æ/ vowels in the L1 are not found in L2 English, yet the allophones of /ʌ/ in L1 – [ɑ:] and [ɒ] – are influenced by the regional dialect in L2 English production. In summary, the results demonstrate the variable effects of L1 regional dialects on L2 speech production. The influence of L1 regional dialect was observed in L2 English production of vowels, in line with the predictions of L2LP; however, there were no significant differences in the production of voiced affricates. Overall, these analyses suggest that L1 regional dialect can shape L2 speech production patterns, but that this occurs to different degrees for different phonemes. In summary, this thesis advances our understanding of cross dialectal and cross linguistic influences in L2 speech production, while also providing important documentation of regional phonetic variation in Turkish

    Musical Hearing and Musical Experience in Second Language English Vowel Acquisition

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    Purpose: Former studies suggested that music perception can help produce certain accentual features in the first and second language (L2), such as intonational contours. What was missing in many of these studies was the identification of the exact relationship between specific music perception skills and the production of different accentual features in a foreign language. Our aim was to verify whether empirically tested musical hearing skills can be related to the acquisition of English vowels by learners of English as an L2 before and after a formal accent training course. Method: Fifty adult Polish speakers of L2 English were tested before and after a two-semester accent training in order to observe the effect of musical hearing on the acquisition of English vowels. Their L2 English vowel formant contours produced in consonant–vowel–consonant context were compared with the target General British vowels produced by their pronunciation teachers. We juxtaposed these results with their musical hearing test scores and self-reported musical experience to observe a possible relationship between successful L2 vowel acquisition and musical aptitude. Results: Preexisting rhythmic memory was reported as a significant predictor before training, while musical experience was reported as a significant factor in the production of more native-like L2 vowels after training. We also observed that not all vowels were equally acquired or affected by musical hearing or musical experience. The strongest estimate we observed was the closeness to model before training, suggesting that learners who already managed to acquire some features of a native-like accent were also more successful after training. Conclusions: Our results are revealing in two aspects. First, the learners' former proficiency in L2 pronunciation is the most robust predictor in acquiring a native-like accent. Second, there is a potential relationship between rhythmic memory and L2 vowel acquisition before training, as well as years of musical experience after training, suggesting that specific musical skills and music practice can be an asset in learning a foreign language accent.This research was supported by the National Science Centre in Poland, Grant 2014/15/N/HS2/03865.64516661682Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Researc

    Chinese EFL Learners’ Acquisition of Phonology: A Comparative Analysis of the Influence of Two Dialects (Northeastern and Cantonese)

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    Ph. D. ThesisChinese and English belong to two distinct language families. Given that English is a lingua franca, there are millions of learners of English who speak one of the varieties of Chinese. Due to the substantial phonological differences between the two languages, Chinese learners of English may encounter difficulties when they communicate in English; developmental issues may also play a role. In addition to Mandarin, Chinese has many dialects/languages and, because these dialects/languages differ from each other, speakers of these Chinese dialects/languages pronounce English differently. It is reasonable to suppose that this behaviour is phonologically governed. The influence from the first language (L1) on second language (L2) phonology has long been viewed as an important factor (Lado, 1957; see also Anderson, 1987; Corder, 1967; Ellis, 1994; Fisiak, 1978, 1991; Gass, 1979; Odlin, 1989; Rasier and Hiligsmann, 2007; Young-Scholten, 1985). Moreover, a large number of relevant research studies on the influence of L1 on L2 have been conducted on the effects of L1 Chinese - typically Mandarin - on L2 English phonology (Li, 2006; Wang, 2007) and to a lesser extent on the influence of other L1 Chinese dialects (Chen, 2010). Why do different Chinese dialects/languages generate differences in the non-target production of English? How do different Chinese dialects/languages influence L2 English and what features, error types and specific errors do different L1 dialect/language speakers make? Questions like these can be answered partially by consulting the literature, but also need further exploration. Moreover, comparative research analysing one language (or language group) but two dialects/languages with L2 English is limited. Therefore, this study explores the phonological differences between two L1 dialects/languages to see what different effects they have on L2 phonology, and thus it contributes to filling this gap in the literature. In so doing, Lado’s Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH, 1995) and Flege’s Speech Learning iv Model (SLM, 1995) are applied as theoretical frameworks. The CAH and SLM involve contradictory notions concerning categories of ‘similar’ and ‘new’ in terms of which is more difficult for the learner. Both are addressed in the present thesis to determine which can best account for the difficulties L2 English learners have in their oral production of L2 English. It needs to noted that as Groves and Mair (2008) said, Chinese situation is unique because mutual intelligibility principle is not sufficient to determine whether Chinese varieties are dialects or languages, thus, I will refer to Harbinese Mandarin and Guangzhou Cantonese as dialects as they are conventionally referred to. This research firstly compares Harbinese Mandarin and Guangzhou Cantonese which fall under the umbrella of Chinese, and to do so with respect to segments, syllable structure and stress, and their different effects on learners’ acquisition of English phonology, followed by the proposal of hypotheses based on Flege’s idea of L1-L2 similarity-based degree of difficulty in SLM. Data was collected to test these hypotheses from 65 participants from three schools at different educational levels (middle school, high school and university) from Harbin and Guangzhou. Auditory analysis, together with acoustic analysis and a native speaker’s spot check, was used to guarantee the validity of the analysis and the reliability of the results. In addition, independent-samples t-tests were carried out to check the significance of the differences in L2 English production between the two Chinese groups. The results indicate that the influence of L1 Chinese dialects/languages on L2 English is found everywhere in the sample, including in segments, syllable structure and stress, and that this influence is statistically significant. Different error types and patterns made by Harbinese and Cantonese learners of English were found. Mandarin is also v spoken by the participants and its influence can be detected from the Cantonese results. The hypotheses in the category of ‘similar’ were generally rejected and in the category of ‘new’ were completely rejected. These findings indicate that Flege’s SLM model suggesting that L1-L2 differences that are ‘similar’ are more difficult than ‘new’, cannot be supported in this context. On the contrary, Lado’s CAH, where ‘new’ differences are predicted for the difficulties L2 learners may have, was supported. In addition, the varieties of English used by Harbinese and Cantonese speakers were also checked. It seems that Harbinese speakers tend to speak American English and Cantonese speakers speak British English, but the difference is not strongly significant. Thus, it is suggested that the variety they speak may be influenced by the similarity between L1 dialects/languages and English varieties; that is to say, the dialect/language more similar to a variety of English influences oral production. With respect to the hypothesis that increased length of exposure leads to reduced error rates, the results are not completely supportive because high school subjects score best among the three levels. This may be due to factors relating to the recent evolution of English teaching in China

    L2 Inflectional Morphology and Prosody: The Case of L1 Bengali Speakers of L2 English

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    This study is set in the context of the persistent omission of functional morphology by adult second language speakers, which often remains in evidence at high levels of proficiency and end-state grammars. The aim of this thesis is to examine the spoken suppliance of inflectional morphology by adult first language speakers of Bengali, as spoken in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh, and to do so in the phonological framework of the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis. An initial analysis of the prosodic representation of Bengali inflectional morphology, in contrast to that in English, finds that the acquisition task for Bengali speakers should, on the one hand, be facilitated according to the availability of required second language prosodic representation to transfer to the interlanguage grammar. On the other, however, a mismatch is found between the minimality requirements of the prosodic word and the moraic structure below the level of the prosodic word. A small group of learners from beginner to advanced participated in a semi-spontaneous elicitation task, grammaticality judgement test and elicited imitation task. The data were analysed for evidence of suppliance of inflection (in accordance with the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis) and for signs of transfer of Bengali minimality requirements and subsequent repair on English 'sub-minimal' stems. The results of the experiments in this study found that by advanced proficiency, first language Bengali speakers appeared to reap the benefits of transfer of first language prosodic representation. However, though observation of suppliance rates on different stem types during the developmental stages may at first not seem to support the outcome, depending upon the interpretation of the strong and weak versions of the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis, asymmetrical suppliance rates at lower levels may, in part, be phonologically influenced by the availability of the required prosodic representation and adjustment to the moraic structure of the second language

    Thai English as a Variety

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    abstract: This study is about Thai English (ThaiE), a variety of World Englishes that is presently spoken in Thailand, as the result of the spread of English and the recent Thai government policies towards English communication in Thailand. In the study, I examined the linguistic data of spoken ThaiE, collected from multiple sources both in the U.S.A. and Thailand. The study made use of a qualitative approach in examining the data, which were from (i) English interviews and questionnaires with 12 highly educated Thai speakers of English during my fieldwork in the Southwestern U.S.A., Central Thailand, and Northeastern Thailand, (ii) English speech samples from the media in Thailand, i.e. television programs, a news report, and a talk radio program, and (iii) the research articles on English used by Thai speakers of English. This study describes the typology of ThaiE in terms of its morpho-syntax, phonology, and sociolinguistics, with the main focus being placed on the structural characteristics of ThaiE. Based on the data, the results show that some of the ThaiE features are similar to the World Englishes features, but some are unique to ThaiE. Therefore, I argue that ThaiE is structurally considered a new variety of World Englishes at the present time. The findings also showed an interesting result, regarding the notion of ThaiE by the fieldwork interview participants. The majority of these participants (n=6) denied the existence of ThaiE, while the minority of the participants (n=5) believed ThaiE existed, and one participant was reluctant to give the answer. The study suggested that the participants' academic backgrounds, the unfamiliar notion of ThaiE, and the level of the participants' social interaction with everyday persons may have influenced their answers to the main research question.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. English 201

    The Impact of Vowel Inventory Size and Linguistic Environment when Learning Two Languages: The Case of English and Greek

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    Producing phonemic contrasts in two typologically different languages, can prove a difficult task for speakers of those languages, even experienced ones (for instance, Boersma & Escudero, 2008; Kivistö-de Souza & Carlet, 2014), from birth or otherwise. This thesis discusses the effects of linguistic environment and phonemic inventories in the production of British English vowels. Greek and English were chosen as a language pair for further investigation, due to the fact that their vocalic inventories differ significantly in terms of the number of phonemes each has, the phonemic categories identified, as well as the vowel features in each. In order to explore the role of the linguistic environment, groups of bilingual Greek - English children based in the United Kingdom and in Greece took part in the first round of experiments. In order to explore further the role of phonemic inventories a group of native Greek second language learners of English also took part in the same set of tasks. The productions of British English vowels and vowel contrasts by each participant group was assessed by a series of speech production tasks analysing acoustic properties of the vowel categories in question. Bilingual children in Greece performed in a similar manner to monolingual controls, however, children raised in the UK deviated from monolingual norms. Quality of input and amount of exposure to each language in the two linguistic environments seem to be predicting factors for vowel production outcomes. Native Greek second language learners of English produced British English vowels similarly to monolingual controls when it came to both spectral and temporal cues. This could be attributed to the amount of experience second language learners had with English throughout their lifespan

    Social and Psychological Factors in Bilingual Speech Production

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    Studies in the fields of bilingualism and second language acquisition have shown that both cognitive and affective psychological factors can influence individuals’ bilingual speech production. More recently, both experimental and variationist studies of bilingual communities have examined the role of social factors on bilinguals’ speech, particularly in cases of long-term language contact and minority-language bilingualism. The Special Issue brings together work on the psychological and/or social factors that influence bilingual speech production as well as work that uses different methodological frameworks. We examine the role of such factors on bilingual speech production in diverse contexts, in order to provide a more holistic account of the ways in which extra-linguistic influences may affect bilinguals’ speech in one or both of their languages

    Perception and production of syllable structure and stress by adult Libyan Arabic speaker acquiring English in the UK

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    The field of second language (L2) phonology has recently addressed the related phonological acquisition question of to what extent exposure to native speaker L2 input following exposure to non-native accented L2 input, results in c~anges in the leamer's interlanguage phonology (Akita 2001). If such learners do show changes over time, what kind of changes are these in both perception and production? My study is a contribution to interlanguage studies on the acquisition of prosodic structure, and concentrates on the acquisition of English syllable structure and metrical stress by Arabic speaker. In this study the interlanguage phonology of 28 native Arabic speakers from Libya learning English in natural settings (The UK), was investigated. The average age of the participants was 32.5 years. All the subjects started learning English in school at an average age of 16.0 years. The primary source oflanguage input was the classroom, till an average age of25.0 years. The method of collecting data involved three types of test. The first test covered syllable structure in onset and coda with epenthesised forms and included 185 words. The second test covered metrical stress, and included two sub-tests. Test 2A included 28 words, and test 2B included 84 sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical forms of stress. The third test contained three sub-tests. Test 3A included 9 words, test 3B included four pictures, and test 3C included 28 sentences. Tests cover perception of syllable structure and metrical stress as well as production of syllable structure and metrical stress for each learner. In the perception test learners had to listen to a type and chose an answer from a paper in front of them whereas for production tests learners had to read words, sentences, and talk about pictures. Their production output was recorded and transcribed. Results show differences for the perception and production sub-tasks. There is also some parameter resetting and missetting at the level of metrical stress. These results mirror the findings of Archibald (1993) Pater (1997) and Mousa (1994).EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
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