Sound Symbolism in Foreign Language Phonological Acquisition

The paper aims at investigating the idea of a symbolic nature of sounds and its implications for in the acquisition of foreign language phonology. Firstly, it will present an overview of universal trends in phonetic symbolism, i.e. non-arbitrary representations of a phoneme by specific semantic criteria. Secondly, the results of a preliminary study on different manifestations of sound symbolism including emotionally-loaded representations of phonemes and other synaesthetic associations shall be discussed. Finally, practical pedagogical implications of sound symbolism will be explored and a number of innovative classroom activities involving sound symbolic associations will be presented

In search of a new perspective: Cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of third language phonology

The books explores the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in phonological acquisition from a multilingual perspective. A distinction is made between second vs. third language acquisition and the complexity of the latter process as well as its conditioning factors are elaborated on. The contribution aims to test the tenets of the current theoretical models of multilingual acquisition including the L2 Status Model, the Cumulative Enhancement Model and the Typological Primacy Model. To this end, three studies were conducted in parallel on four groups of participants with varying language combinations (i.e. mirrored L2 and L3 sets). The studies involved (1) accentedness, comprehensibility and accuracy ratings assessing the perceived phonetic performance in the L3, (2) acoustic measurements of voice onset time (VOT) in the L1, L2 and L3 as a correlate of foreign accentedness, and (3) the degree of metaphonological awareness generated from oral protocols. The results were analysed separately for each study as well as globally by means of across groups and across studies comparisons. The findings indicate that CLI in the L3 phonological acquisition may have multiple sources including both the native and non-native languages, that it's gradual and structure dependent and that the proposed models can account only partially for its specificity

L2-accented speech in L3 production

The paper is aimed at investigating the sources of cross-linguistic influence in the third language (L3) phonology, and, particularly, the impact of the second language (L2) on the phonological acquisition of another foreign language. The study consisted in foreign accent judgements performed by a group of expert judges who were presented with recorded samples of L3 English. The findings confirm the results of some previous studies on the phenomenon of 'L2 status' and demonstrate a tendency for the L2 phonological transfer in L3 production at the initial stages of acquisition that decreases with growing third language proficiency

Cross-linguistic Influence in Third Language Acquisition of Voice Onset Time

The paper aims to investigate the sources of cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of voice onset time patterns in third language phonology. Thirty two learners of L3 French with L1 Polish and L2 English were recorded reading lists of words in carrier phrases in the three respective languages. The recordings were analyzed for the degree of aspiration of voiceless stops in stressed onset positions. The results revealed interlanguage VOT patterns, including compromise values for L3 VOT that could be attributed to a combined influence of L1 and L2, thus substantiating the existence of both native and non-native cross-linguistic influence in L3 phonology

Cross-modal Reinforcements in Phonetics Teaching and Learning: An Overview of Innovative Trends in Pronunciation Pedagogy

The present contribution provides an overview of some innovative approaches to pronunciation pedagogy, focusing on cross-modal reinforcements aimed at facilitating the process of L2 phonological perception and production. The paper starts with a brief introduction into recent theories of multisensory integration and proceeds with practical suggestions for multimodal reinforcements integrating visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and metacognitive domains of L2 pronunciation teaching and learning. The proposal includes sensory stimulations in the form of articulatory warm-up exercises, assigning vivid symbolic characteristics to target language sounds, phonetic colour coding and the development of conscious metacognitive phonetic strategies

VOT Patterns in the Acquisition of Third Language Phonology

The paper aims at investigating the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of third language phonology by exploring the interaction between three phonological systems of multilingual subjects based on their productions of voice onset time patterns. It presents the results of two parallel studies involving different language combinations; (1) L1 Polish, L2 English, and L3 French; (2) L1 Polish, L2 English, and L3 German.. The participants (N=64) were recorded reading lists of words in carrier phrases in the three respective languages (L1, L2 and L3) and the recordings were subsequently analyzed for the degree of aspiration of voiceless stops in stressed onset positions. The results revealed unique interlanguage VOT patterns as the multilingual subjects contrasted between VOT length in all three language systems. The L3 values corresponded to compromise VOT values and were intermediate between the L1 and L2 mean VOT. The findings corroborated the co-existence of the L1 and L2 effect, and substantiated the assumption of a combined cross-linguistic influence in L3 acquisition

Metalinguistic awareness in children with differing language learning experience

Theoretical research concerned with the notion of second language (L2) learning difficulty has resulted in specific criteria that can be used to predict the learning difficulty of different languages in terms of both explicit and implicit knowledge. The characteristics of the constructed language Esperanto suggest that this language has lower explicit and implicit learning difficulty than other languages. It may therefore be a suitable ?starter language? for child L2 learning in the classroom. Specifically, we propose that Esperanto may facilitate the development of metalinguistic awareness and, as a consequence, boost children?s budding capacity for explicit learning. This would be particularly advantageous in the minimal-input setting of the average foreign language classroom. We present findings from an empirical study which compared 11 to 12-year-old English-speaking children who had learned Esperanto and a European L2 (N = 35) with children who had learned various combinations of European and non-European L2s (N = 168) in terms of their performance on a measure of metalinguistic awareness. No significant differences in overall level of metalinguistic awareness were identified, but the Esperanto group significantly outperformed the comparison group on one of the eleven metalinguistic tasks included in the measure. Moreover, the Esperanto group displayed a more homogeneous performance than the other groups of children. This suggests that learning Esperanto may have a lasting levelling effect, reducing differences between children with varying metalinguistic abilities

Bilingual children's phonology shows evidence of transfer, but not deceleration in their L1

Bilingual language development might be characterized by transfer, deceleration, and/or acceleration, the first two being relevant for the language impairment diagnosis. Studies on bilingual children’s productive phonology show evidence of transfer, but little is known about deceleration in this population. Here, we focused on phonological transfer and deceleration in L1 speech of typically developing Polish-English bilingual children of Polish migrants to the United Kingdom (aged 4.7-7). We analyzed L1 speech samples of 30 bilinguals and 2 groups of Polish monolinguals, matched to the bilinguals on age or vocabulary size. We found that bilingual children’ speech (both simultaneous and early sequential) was characterized by transfer, but not by deceleration, suggesting that while phonological deceleration phases out in children above the age of 4.7, transfer does not. We discuss our findings within the PRIMIR model of bilingual phonological acquisition (Curtin et al., 2011) and show their implications for SLT practices

Teaching to suppress Polglish processes

Advanced second language (henceforth L2) learners in a formal setting can suppress many first language (henceforth L1) processes in L2 pronunciation when provided with sufficient exposure to L2 and meta competence (see Sect. 4 for a definition of this term). This paper shows how imitation in L2 teaching can be enhanced on the basis of current phonetic research and how complex allophonic processes such as nasal vocalization and glottal stop insertion can be suppressed using “repair”—a method of providing learners with adequate input, so that they can use the L1 processes to improve L2 pronunciation.This research is supported by a grant to Geoffrey Schwartz, Anna Balas and Arkadiusz Rojczyk from the Polish National Science Center (Narodowe Centrum Nauki). “Sandhi in Second Language Speech,” project #: UMO-2012/05/B/HS2/04036

Vowel perception in multilingual speakers: ERP evidence from Polish, English and Norwegian

IntroductionResearch on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) in monolingual and bilingual speakers has shown significant differences in L1 versus L2 phonemic perception. In this study, we examined whether the MMN response is sensitive to the differences between L1, L2 and L3/Ln.MethodsWe compared bioelectrical brain activity in response to changes in pairs of vowels produced in three different languages. Specifically, multilingual participants listened to selected vowel contrasts in their L1 Polish, L2 English and L3/Ln Norwegian presented within the passive-oddball paradigm.ResultsResults revealed that the MMN was modulated by language: we observed significant differences between L2 English and L3/Ln Norwegian as well as between L1 Polish and L3/Ln Norwegian. For L3/Ln Norwegian, the MMN response had a lower amplitude when compared with L2 English and L1 Polish.DiscussionSuch findings suggest that foreign language status (i.e., L2 vs. L3/Ln) modulates early auditory processing