In this article, I tackle the question of differential substitution in L2 phonology. A classic ex... more In this article, I tackle the question of differential substitution in L2 phonology. A classic example of the phenomenon is learners from different L1s attempting to acquire the L2 English interdental fricative /θ/. Speakers of some languages (e.g., Japanese) tend to pronounce the /θ/ as [s] while speakers of other languages (e.g., Russian) tend to pronounce the /θ/ as [t]). Since both Japanese and Russian have both /s/ and /t/ in their phonemic inventories, it is interesting to ask why one language would choose [s] and the other [t]. What I argue in this article is that it is not a local comparison of two sounds, two features, or two phonemes that will determine why one segment rather than another is substituted. Rather, I argue that we must consider the formal representation of the entire segmental inventory (represented as a contrastive hierarchy) in order to understand why the Japanese pick the [s] but the Russian the [t] as the "best" substitute for the English /θ/. What I will demonstrate is that in the languages that substitute [s], [continuant] is the highest-ranked feature that has scope over the place and voice features in the contrastive hierarchy of phonological features. In the languages that substitute [t], the place and voice features rank above [continuant].
When we speak a second language, we tend to do so with an accent. An accent is a change of the so... more When we speak a second language, we tend to do so with an accent. An accent is a change of the sounds of the second language, often the result of the influence of the first language. For example, an English speaker might produce French with English “r” sounds. Accents result from more than just poor muscular coordination. Second-language speakers are drawing on the unconscious rules that they already know about their first language. This body of knowledge influences not only how people speak a second language but also how they hear it. If a Japanese speaker is not accurately producing a distinction between an “l” and “r” sound, it is likely that the same individual will have difficulty accurately hearing the difference between the two sounds. Ultimately, bilingualism is a natural state for the human brain, even when we are speaking or listening with an accent.
The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English ... more The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English comprehensibility and accentedness of Korean speakers. To this end, 30 native Korean participants read aloud 15 English sentences without diacritics in the pretest. Then, they were given explicit instructions on the production of higher pitch and extended duration as a marker of English stress with musical notation provided. In the posttest, the participants read aloud the same sentences as were in the pretest but which had diacritics indicating stress placement. In the delayed posttest, two days after the pretest and the posttest, the participants read 15 sentences without diacritics again to see if the effects of the treatment were retained. Randomized speech samples were rated by three native speakers of English in relation to comprehensibility and accentedness. Findings showed that significant improvements were observed after the treatment in both comprehensibility and accentedness.
The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English ... more The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English comprehensibility and accentedness of Korean speakers. To this end, 30 native Korean participants read aloud 15 English sentences without diacritics in the pretest. Then, they were given explicit instructions on the production of higher pitch and extended duration as a marker of English stress with musical notation provided. In the posttest, the participants read aloud the same sentences as were in the pretest but which had diacritics indicating stress placement. In the delayed posttest, two days after the pretest and the posttest, the participants read 15 sentences without diacritics again to see if the effects of the treatment were retained. Randomized speech samples were rated by three native speakers of English in relation to comprehensibility and accentedness. Findings showed that significant improvements were observed after the treatment in both comprehensibility and accentedness.
International Journal of Chinese Language Teaching, 2023
In this paper, we probe the question of whether heritage leaners (HLs) have a phonological (rathe... more In this paper, we probe the question of whether heritage leaners (HLs) have a phonological (rather than just the documented phonetic) advantage in language classes. Polinsky (2015) argues adult HLs, while divergent in morphosyntax, have certain "phonological" advantages. Chang, Yao, Haynes and Rhodes (2011) argue that HLs are more nativelike than second language (L2) learners in producing certain phonetic details. We explore the teaching and learning of Chinese T3 tone sandhi (i.e., a phonological feature that learners must acquire). Given that T3 has been argued to be the most problematic tone in both L2 perception and production among all lexical tones (Zhang, 2014, 2016), we probe how "good" their sandhi pronunciation is. Our data show that the Mandarin HLs do not have a phonological advantage over (i.e., are not significantly different from) non-heritage L2 learners. Furthermore, we show that Cantonese HLs are significantly less comprehensible than non-heritage L2 learners. Little time is devoted to pronunciation in language teaching (Huensch, 2019). This is true in many Chinese classes in Canadian universities. Common textbooks (e.g., Integrated Chinese) emphasize vocabulary and grammar. Chinese instructors in Canadian universities face the challenge of having a mixed student population: heritage language learners (HLs) and non-heritage L2 learners. This can lead to high levels of anxiety in the HLs in the classroom (Prada & Guerrero-Rodriguez, 2020). Teachers need to be aware of this HL anxiety and cannot assume that HLs will be "experts" in their class.
The efficiency of phonetic training via discrimination tasks has been questioned, as phoneme-grap... more The efficiency of phonetic training via discrimination tasks has been questioned, as phoneme-grapheme correspondence is not transparent in discrimination training. Indeed, we showed in a previous study that some Japanese learners of English associated the vowels in ‘ship’ and ‘sheep’ with the wrong orthographic representation. The current study evaluated if mislabeling issues would occur when Japanese learners of English train with the contrast as in ‘rose’ and ‘roads’, and whether any improvement over time would be observed. Forty native English speakers from North America participated as the group of reference. Twenty Japanese speakers received two discrimination training sessions of about thirty minutes with the target contrast, with stimuli varying along two relevant dimensions (coda closure duration, and vowel duration) to go from ‘rose’ to ‘roads’. The cue-weighting task administered before and after training revealed mislabeling issues that were present before training: The l...
In this paper, I argue in favour of property-by-property transfer in the third language acquisiti... more In this paper, I argue in favour of property-by-property transfer in the third language acquisition of English by L1 Arabic and L2 French speakers in Northern Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) based on a reanalysis of previous work. I provide a phonological analysis of their spontaneous production data in the domains of consonants, vowels, stress, and rhythm. The L3 phonology shows evidence of influence from both L1 Arabic and L2 French, with mixed influences found both within and across segmental and prosodic domains. The vowels are French-influenced, while the consonants are Arabic-influenced; the stress is a mixture of Arabic and French influence while the rhythm is French. I argue that these data are explained if we adopt a Contrastive Hierarchy Model of feature structure with the addition of parsing theories such as those proposed by Lightfoot. These data provide further evidence in support of the Westergaard’s Linguistic Proximity Model. I conclude by showing how this approach can ...
This research investigates factors which underlie the perception of second language (L2) phonolog... more This research investigates factors which underlie the perception of second language (L2) phonological contrasts by highlighting an asymmetry in the perception of the four-way laryngeal stop contrasts in Hindi by native speakers of English and French. We argue that this asymmetry is a result of the influence of differing underlying representations in the first language (L1). Based on a theory that English uses the feature [spread glottis] while French uses the feature [voice] to distinguish voiced and voiceless stops, it was predicted that native speakers of these two language groups would perceive the four-way Hindi contrasts differently. Monolingual Canadian English (n=18) and monolingual Canadian French (n=18) speakers were tested on their perception of Hindi minimal pairs using an ABX discrimination task with a long interstimulus interval. Results supported the predictions; English speakers performed significantly better on contrasts involving the feature [spread glottis] and the...
This study compares the use of an identification task with the use of a discrimination task for t... more This study compares the use of an identification task with the use of a discrimination task for training Japanese speakers on the English high front vowels. Seventeen Japanese speakers completed two sessions of identification training with feedback, using ‘ship’ and ‘sheep’ tokens that were manipulated to vary along the vowel duration and formant dimensions. Their results were compared with those of twenty Japanese speakers trained with an AX discrimination task. A two-alternative forced-choice identification task (without feedback) evaluated the participants’ use of temporal and spectral information before and after training. The results indicate that both training paradigms led to comparable improvement in the use of temporal and spectral information. Hence, previous research suggesting that the identification task provides superior results to the discrimination task may be due to mislabeling issues, rather than learners’ lack of improvement in the use of spectral information.
This literature survey was conducted to provide information on Aboriginal language learning and t... more This literature survey was conducted to provide information on Aboriginal language learning and teaching in Alberta. Although direction was given to the researchers/writers to establish parameters for the task, the content of this document reflects the writers’ perspectives on topics and subjects reviewed and does not necessarily reflect the position of Alberta Education.
This study compares the results of a visual cue association training paradigm with the results of... more This study compares the results of a visual cue association training paradigm with the results of a previously reported discrimination training paradigm for learning a non-native vowel contrast. Sixteen Japanese learners of English completed two 30minute sessions of picture association training: Trainees were presented, for instance, with the picture of a ‘ship’ while hearing the word ship, followed by the picture of a ‘sheep’ while hearing the word sheep, and had to decide if the two pictures they saw were the ‘same’ or ‘different’. The results on the cueweighting pre-test and post-test revealed an improvement in the use of both spectral and temporal information after training, and this improvement was comparable to the improvement observed with a focus on forms discrimination task. Hence, learning sound contrasts may occur without focus on the acoustic forms.
This study evaluates whether identification training yields superior results to discrimination tr... more This study evaluates whether identification training yields superior results to discrimination training for improving the perception of a very difficult nonnative contrast. Seventeen Japanese speakers received one hour of identification training with feedback with the English coda contrast /z/-/dz/ as in ‘rose’ and ‘roads’. The ‘rose’-‘roads’ stimuli were manipulated to vary in terms of the duration of the stop closure and the duration of the preceding vowel. These results were compared with that of twenty Japanese speakers who received one hour of AX discrimination training with the same contrast using the same stimuli. The cue-weighting pre-test and post-test revealed no improvement in the use of vowel duration for either group. However, the identification group improved their use of the closure duration to a slightly (and significant) greater extent than the discrimination group. Hence, identification training may provide superior results for the acquisition of very difficult L2 ...
The theme of this collection is “L2 Phonology Meets L2 Pronunciation.” Such an interdisciplinary ... more The theme of this collection is “L2 Phonology Meets L2 Pronunciation.” Such an interdisciplinary approach, of course, runs the risk of any gathering of friends at which you discover that your chessclub friends having nothing to say to your ultimate-frisbee teammates. We are sure, however, that these papers reveal this not to be the case here. In various guises as researchers and teachers, the three editors have tackled the question of what is easy and what is difficult in both learning and teaching (the sub-theme of the collection). We hope you find our introductory mini-reviews helpful in setting the stage. One is on pronunciation teaching (O’Brien), one on functional load (Sewell), and one on L2 phonology (Archibald). There are clear similarities in what L2 phonologists are interested in, and what L2 pronunciation teachers are interested in. All three of these themes are intertwined in the collection. What we have assembled here are papers written by people who have been fascinated by these same questions. In these nine papers, there are some which focus on consonants (Cardoso et al.; Stefanich and Cabrelli; Zhang and Levis), some on vowels (Cebrian et al.; Munro), some on prosody (Ghosh and Levis; Liu and Reed), and some on teaching (Colantoni et al.; Kostromitina and Kang). We group them in this way to reflect the Commentaries by eminent scholars that appear after the papers. We thank Shea, Thomson, McGregor, and Sonsaat Hegelheimer for accepting our invitation to round out the Research Topic. Of course, many of the papers reveal that the boundary line between phonology and pronunciation is really quite blurry. Such is the reality of scholarly life. Stefanich and Cabrelli look at the production of the Spanish alveopalatal nasal/ɲ/by L1 English speakers. They illustrate the complex developmental path of acquisition of this new sound. Zhang and Levis look at a less-studied consonantal pattern: the effects of a merger of/n/and/l/in the Southwestern Mandarin dialect of Chinese. They demonstrate that this L1 property affects production in Standard Mandarin differently than it affects English production. Cardoso et al. look at the effects of different types of instruction on the acquisition of consonantal sequences. They show that the group which received instruction on the most marked structure fares the best. Munro presents a fascinating data set of Cantonese learners of English tense/lax vowels, and shows that there is a great deal of individual and lexical variation which makes it very challenging to talk of a monolithic notion of difficulty. Cebrian et al. probe the relationship between perceived similarity judgments of English tense/lax vowels by Spanish/Catalan native speakers and their perception and production. They discover that perceived similarity is not always a good predictor of discrimination ability. Colantoni et al. draw on the pronunciation literature, and set out and illustrate some design principles for enhancing L2 Spanish intelligibility in the classroom. Edited and reviewed by: Manuel Carreiras, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain
The distinction between representations and processes is central to most models of the cognitive ... more The distinction between representations and processes is central to most models of the cognitive science of language. Linguistic theory informs the types of representations assumed, and these representations are what are taken to be the targets of second language acquisition. Epistemologically, this is often taken to be knowledge, or knowledge-that. Techniques such as Grammaticality Judgment tasks are paradigmatic as we seek to gain insight into what a learner’s grammar looks like. Learners behave as if certain phonological, morphological, or syntactic strings (which may or may not be target-like) were well-formed. It is the task of the researcher to understand the nature of the knowledge that governs those well-formedness beliefs.Traditional accounts of processing, on the other hand, look to the real-time use of language, either in production or perception, and invoke discussions of skill or knowledge-how. A range of experimental psycholinguistic techniques have been used to assess...
In this article, I tackle the question of differential substitution in L2 phonology. A classic ex... more In this article, I tackle the question of differential substitution in L2 phonology. A classic example of the phenomenon is learners from different L1s attempting to acquire the L2 English interdental fricative /θ/. Speakers of some languages (e.g., Japanese) tend to pronounce the /θ/ as [s] while speakers of other languages (e.g., Russian) tend to pronounce the /θ/ as [t]). Since both Japanese and Russian have both /s/ and /t/ in their phonemic inventories, it is interesting to ask why one language would choose [s] and the other [t]. What I argue in this article is that it is not a local comparison of two sounds, two features, or two phonemes that will determine why one segment rather than another is substituted. Rather, I argue that we must consider the formal representation of the entire segmental inventory (represented as a contrastive hierarchy) in order to understand why the Japanese pick the [s] but the Russian the [t] as the "best" substitute for the English /θ/. What I will demonstrate is that in the languages that substitute [s], [continuant] is the highest-ranked feature that has scope over the place and voice features in the contrastive hierarchy of phonological features. In the languages that substitute [t], the place and voice features rank above [continuant].
When we speak a second language, we tend to do so with an accent. An accent is a change of the so... more When we speak a second language, we tend to do so with an accent. An accent is a change of the sounds of the second language, often the result of the influence of the first language. For example, an English speaker might produce French with English “r” sounds. Accents result from more than just poor muscular coordination. Second-language speakers are drawing on the unconscious rules that they already know about their first language. This body of knowledge influences not only how people speak a second language but also how they hear it. If a Japanese speaker is not accurately producing a distinction between an “l” and “r” sound, it is likely that the same individual will have difficulty accurately hearing the difference between the two sounds. Ultimately, bilingualism is a natural state for the human brain, even when we are speaking or listening with an accent.
The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English ... more The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English comprehensibility and accentedness of Korean speakers. To this end, 30 native Korean participants read aloud 15 English sentences without diacritics in the pretest. Then, they were given explicit instructions on the production of higher pitch and extended duration as a marker of English stress with musical notation provided. In the posttest, the participants read aloud the same sentences as were in the pretest but which had diacritics indicating stress placement. In the delayed posttest, two days after the pretest and the posttest, the participants read 15 sentences without diacritics again to see if the effects of the treatment were retained. Randomized speech samples were rated by three native speakers of English in relation to comprehensibility and accentedness. Findings showed that significant improvements were observed after the treatment in both comprehensibility and accentedness.
The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English ... more The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English comprehensibility and accentedness of Korean speakers. To this end, 30 native Korean participants read aloud 15 English sentences without diacritics in the pretest. Then, they were given explicit instructions on the production of higher pitch and extended duration as a marker of English stress with musical notation provided. In the posttest, the participants read aloud the same sentences as were in the pretest but which had diacritics indicating stress placement. In the delayed posttest, two days after the pretest and the posttest, the participants read 15 sentences without diacritics again to see if the effects of the treatment were retained. Randomized speech samples were rated by three native speakers of English in relation to comprehensibility and accentedness. Findings showed that significant improvements were observed after the treatment in both comprehensibility and accentedness.
International Journal of Chinese Language Teaching, 2023
In this paper, we probe the question of whether heritage leaners (HLs) have a phonological (rathe... more In this paper, we probe the question of whether heritage leaners (HLs) have a phonological (rather than just the documented phonetic) advantage in language classes. Polinsky (2015) argues adult HLs, while divergent in morphosyntax, have certain "phonological" advantages. Chang, Yao, Haynes and Rhodes (2011) argue that HLs are more nativelike than second language (L2) learners in producing certain phonetic details. We explore the teaching and learning of Chinese T3 tone sandhi (i.e., a phonological feature that learners must acquire). Given that T3 has been argued to be the most problematic tone in both L2 perception and production among all lexical tones (Zhang, 2014, 2016), we probe how "good" their sandhi pronunciation is. Our data show that the Mandarin HLs do not have a phonological advantage over (i.e., are not significantly different from) non-heritage L2 learners. Furthermore, we show that Cantonese HLs are significantly less comprehensible than non-heritage L2 learners. Little time is devoted to pronunciation in language teaching (Huensch, 2019). This is true in many Chinese classes in Canadian universities. Common textbooks (e.g., Integrated Chinese) emphasize vocabulary and grammar. Chinese instructors in Canadian universities face the challenge of having a mixed student population: heritage language learners (HLs) and non-heritage L2 learners. This can lead to high levels of anxiety in the HLs in the classroom (Prada & Guerrero-Rodriguez, 2020). Teachers need to be aware of this HL anxiety and cannot assume that HLs will be "experts" in their class.
The efficiency of phonetic training via discrimination tasks has been questioned, as phoneme-grap... more The efficiency of phonetic training via discrimination tasks has been questioned, as phoneme-grapheme correspondence is not transparent in discrimination training. Indeed, we showed in a previous study that some Japanese learners of English associated the vowels in ‘ship’ and ‘sheep’ with the wrong orthographic representation. The current study evaluated if mislabeling issues would occur when Japanese learners of English train with the contrast as in ‘rose’ and ‘roads’, and whether any improvement over time would be observed. Forty native English speakers from North America participated as the group of reference. Twenty Japanese speakers received two discrimination training sessions of about thirty minutes with the target contrast, with stimuli varying along two relevant dimensions (coda closure duration, and vowel duration) to go from ‘rose’ to ‘roads’. The cue-weighting task administered before and after training revealed mislabeling issues that were present before training: The l...
In this paper, I argue in favour of property-by-property transfer in the third language acquisiti... more In this paper, I argue in favour of property-by-property transfer in the third language acquisition of English by L1 Arabic and L2 French speakers in Northern Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) based on a reanalysis of previous work. I provide a phonological analysis of their spontaneous production data in the domains of consonants, vowels, stress, and rhythm. The L3 phonology shows evidence of influence from both L1 Arabic and L2 French, with mixed influences found both within and across segmental and prosodic domains. The vowels are French-influenced, while the consonants are Arabic-influenced; the stress is a mixture of Arabic and French influence while the rhythm is French. I argue that these data are explained if we adopt a Contrastive Hierarchy Model of feature structure with the addition of parsing theories such as those proposed by Lightfoot. These data provide further evidence in support of the Westergaard’s Linguistic Proximity Model. I conclude by showing how this approach can ...
This research investigates factors which underlie the perception of second language (L2) phonolog... more This research investigates factors which underlie the perception of second language (L2) phonological contrasts by highlighting an asymmetry in the perception of the four-way laryngeal stop contrasts in Hindi by native speakers of English and French. We argue that this asymmetry is a result of the influence of differing underlying representations in the first language (L1). Based on a theory that English uses the feature [spread glottis] while French uses the feature [voice] to distinguish voiced and voiceless stops, it was predicted that native speakers of these two language groups would perceive the four-way Hindi contrasts differently. Monolingual Canadian English (n=18) and monolingual Canadian French (n=18) speakers were tested on their perception of Hindi minimal pairs using an ABX discrimination task with a long interstimulus interval. Results supported the predictions; English speakers performed significantly better on contrasts involving the feature [spread glottis] and the...
This study compares the use of an identification task with the use of a discrimination task for t... more This study compares the use of an identification task with the use of a discrimination task for training Japanese speakers on the English high front vowels. Seventeen Japanese speakers completed two sessions of identification training with feedback, using ‘ship’ and ‘sheep’ tokens that were manipulated to vary along the vowel duration and formant dimensions. Their results were compared with those of twenty Japanese speakers trained with an AX discrimination task. A two-alternative forced-choice identification task (without feedback) evaluated the participants’ use of temporal and spectral information before and after training. The results indicate that both training paradigms led to comparable improvement in the use of temporal and spectral information. Hence, previous research suggesting that the identification task provides superior results to the discrimination task may be due to mislabeling issues, rather than learners’ lack of improvement in the use of spectral information.
This literature survey was conducted to provide information on Aboriginal language learning and t... more This literature survey was conducted to provide information on Aboriginal language learning and teaching in Alberta. Although direction was given to the researchers/writers to establish parameters for the task, the content of this document reflects the writers’ perspectives on topics and subjects reviewed and does not necessarily reflect the position of Alberta Education.
This study compares the results of a visual cue association training paradigm with the results of... more This study compares the results of a visual cue association training paradigm with the results of a previously reported discrimination training paradigm for learning a non-native vowel contrast. Sixteen Japanese learners of English completed two 30minute sessions of picture association training: Trainees were presented, for instance, with the picture of a ‘ship’ while hearing the word ship, followed by the picture of a ‘sheep’ while hearing the word sheep, and had to decide if the two pictures they saw were the ‘same’ or ‘different’. The results on the cueweighting pre-test and post-test revealed an improvement in the use of both spectral and temporal information after training, and this improvement was comparable to the improvement observed with a focus on forms discrimination task. Hence, learning sound contrasts may occur without focus on the acoustic forms.
This study evaluates whether identification training yields superior results to discrimination tr... more This study evaluates whether identification training yields superior results to discrimination training for improving the perception of a very difficult nonnative contrast. Seventeen Japanese speakers received one hour of identification training with feedback with the English coda contrast /z/-/dz/ as in ‘rose’ and ‘roads’. The ‘rose’-‘roads’ stimuli were manipulated to vary in terms of the duration of the stop closure and the duration of the preceding vowel. These results were compared with that of twenty Japanese speakers who received one hour of AX discrimination training with the same contrast using the same stimuli. The cue-weighting pre-test and post-test revealed no improvement in the use of vowel duration for either group. However, the identification group improved their use of the closure duration to a slightly (and significant) greater extent than the discrimination group. Hence, identification training may provide superior results for the acquisition of very difficult L2 ...
The theme of this collection is “L2 Phonology Meets L2 Pronunciation.” Such an interdisciplinary ... more The theme of this collection is “L2 Phonology Meets L2 Pronunciation.” Such an interdisciplinary approach, of course, runs the risk of any gathering of friends at which you discover that your chessclub friends having nothing to say to your ultimate-frisbee teammates. We are sure, however, that these papers reveal this not to be the case here. In various guises as researchers and teachers, the three editors have tackled the question of what is easy and what is difficult in both learning and teaching (the sub-theme of the collection). We hope you find our introductory mini-reviews helpful in setting the stage. One is on pronunciation teaching (O’Brien), one on functional load (Sewell), and one on L2 phonology (Archibald). There are clear similarities in what L2 phonologists are interested in, and what L2 pronunciation teachers are interested in. All three of these themes are intertwined in the collection. What we have assembled here are papers written by people who have been fascinated by these same questions. In these nine papers, there are some which focus on consonants (Cardoso et al.; Stefanich and Cabrelli; Zhang and Levis), some on vowels (Cebrian et al.; Munro), some on prosody (Ghosh and Levis; Liu and Reed), and some on teaching (Colantoni et al.; Kostromitina and Kang). We group them in this way to reflect the Commentaries by eminent scholars that appear after the papers. We thank Shea, Thomson, McGregor, and Sonsaat Hegelheimer for accepting our invitation to round out the Research Topic. Of course, many of the papers reveal that the boundary line between phonology and pronunciation is really quite blurry. Such is the reality of scholarly life. Stefanich and Cabrelli look at the production of the Spanish alveopalatal nasal/ɲ/by L1 English speakers. They illustrate the complex developmental path of acquisition of this new sound. Zhang and Levis look at a less-studied consonantal pattern: the effects of a merger of/n/and/l/in the Southwestern Mandarin dialect of Chinese. They demonstrate that this L1 property affects production in Standard Mandarin differently than it affects English production. Cardoso et al. look at the effects of different types of instruction on the acquisition of consonantal sequences. They show that the group which received instruction on the most marked structure fares the best. Munro presents a fascinating data set of Cantonese learners of English tense/lax vowels, and shows that there is a great deal of individual and lexical variation which makes it very challenging to talk of a monolithic notion of difficulty. Cebrian et al. probe the relationship between perceived similarity judgments of English tense/lax vowels by Spanish/Catalan native speakers and their perception and production. They discover that perceived similarity is not always a good predictor of discrimination ability. Colantoni et al. draw on the pronunciation literature, and set out and illustrate some design principles for enhancing L2 Spanish intelligibility in the classroom. Edited and reviewed by: Manuel Carreiras, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain
The distinction between representations and processes is central to most models of the cognitive ... more The distinction between representations and processes is central to most models of the cognitive science of language. Linguistic theory informs the types of representations assumed, and these representations are what are taken to be the targets of second language acquisition. Epistemologically, this is often taken to be knowledge, or knowledge-that. Techniques such as Grammaticality Judgment tasks are paradigmatic as we seek to gain insight into what a learner’s grammar looks like. Learners behave as if certain phonological, morphological, or syntactic strings (which may or may not be target-like) were well-formed. It is the task of the researcher to understand the nature of the knowledge that governs those well-formedness beliefs.Traditional accounts of processing, on the other hand, look to the real-time use of language, either in production or perception, and invoke discussions of skill or knowledge-how. A range of experimental psycholinguistic techniques have been used to assess...
In this study, I investigated the acquisition of L2 German plural allomorphy by means of a writte... more In this study, I investigated the acquisition of L2 German plural allomorphy by means of a written task of classroom learners in North America. Trommer (2015) has argued that the mutual exclusivity of marking plural by either an [n] suffix or an umlauted (i.e. [CORONAL]) stem vowel derives from a universal property of phonological representations which bans the crossing of association lines which would result from doubly linking the [CORONAL] feature which marks the plural. The data show that the learners made many errors but that the number of forms which suggested a violation of a universal property were statistically insignificant. I argue that these data are consistent with models showing that interlanguage phonologies are governed by universal phonological principals.
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Papers by John Archibald