Acquiring A Non Native Phonology

This is a study of the phonological development of a family of L2 English learners. It is the first full-length book that focuses on a tightly-knit group of learners' acquisition of phonology over a longitudinal timeframe, and the first book to study both social and linguistic factors across that time period. Jette G. Hansen analyses this data gathered from actual language learners in the light of recent theory, as well as challenging aspects of current thinking on the subject of second language acquisition. Acquiring a Non-Native Phonology therefore makes an important and original contribution to the field and provides an in-depth analysis and discussion of the developmental processes in acquiring a non-native sound system which has not previously been presented. The book is aimed at academics interested in second language acquisition, and researchers studying phonology in general.

This is a study of the phonological development of a family of L2 English learners. It is the first full-length book that focuses on a tightly-knit group of learners' acquisition of phonology over a longitudinal timeframe, and the first book to study both social and linguistic factors across that time period. Jette G. Hansen analyses this data gathered from actual language learners in the light of recent theory, as well as challenging aspects of current thinking on the subject of second language acquisition. Acquiring a Non-Native Phonology therefore makes an important and original contribution to the field and provides an in-depth analysis and discussion of the developmental processes in acquiring a non-native sound system which has not previously been presented. The book is aimed at academics interested in second language acquisition, and researchers studying phonology in general.

This volume is a collection of 13 chapters, each devoted to a particular issue that is crucial to our understanding of the way learners acquire, learn, and use an L2 sound system. In addition, it spans both theory and application in L2 phonology. The book is divided into three parts, with each section unified by broad thematic content: Part I, “Theoretical Issues and Frameworks in L2 Phonology,” lays the groundwork for examining L2 phonological acquisition. Part II, “Second Language Speech Perception and Production,” examines these two aspects of L2 speech in more detail. Finally, Part III, “Technology, Training, and Curriculum,” bridges the gap between theory and practice. Each chapter examines theoretical frameworks, major research findings (both classic and recent), methodological issues and choices for conducting research in a particular area of L2 phonology, and major implications of the research findings for more general models of language acquisition and/or pedagogy.

Second language phonology is approached in this book from the perspective of data-based studies into the English sound system as used by native and non-native speakers of the language. The book offers a unique combination of psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and pedagogical approaches, with individual contributions investigating the effect of selected conditioning factors on the pronunciation of English. With all the richness of approaches, it is a strong phonetic background that unifies individual contributions to the volume. Thus, the book contains a large body of original, primary research which will be of interest to experienced scientist, practitioners and lecturers as well as graduate students planning to embark on empirical methods of investigating the nature of the sound system

Chan’s exploration of the acquisition of English grammar and phonology by Cantonese learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) offers insights into the specific challenges that learners often encounter and posits ways to help them overcome those challenges. Possible sources of the challenges are also examined. The book covers the basic differences between English and Cantonese grammar as well as those between English and Cantonese phonology. Chan discusses the kinds of grammatical and phonological problems that Cantonese ESL learners often have in their acquisition of English. In terms of grammar, various structures are reviewed, including errors which are clearly due to L1 interference and also those which may not be directly L1-related. Learners’ common misconceptions about relevant concepts are also revealed. In terms of phonology, both speech perception and speech production problems at the segmental and suprasegmental levels are examined. For learner problems which may be the result of L1 interference, a contrastive approach is adopted in analysing the cause and nature of the errors. Chan also offers readers pedagogical insights to target common grammatical problems, including the use of an algorithmic approach, the use of a discovery-based consciousness-raising approach and the use of metalinguistic explanations. As far as the learning of English phonology is concerned, she argues that the training of speech production should go hand-in-hand with that of speech perception. Future research can experiment with the proposed teaching ideas with Cantonese ESL learners and learners of other native languages. Researchers and ESL teaching professionals will find the insights and research contained within this volume invaluable when encountering or researching Chinese ESL learners.

Even though second-language learners may master the grammar and vocabulary of the new languages, they almost never achieve a native phonology (accent). Scholars and professionals dealing with second-language learners would agree that this is one of the most persistent challenges they face. Now, for the first time, Roy Major's Foreign Accent covers the exploding scholarship in this area and lays out the issues specifically for audiences in the second language acquisition and applied linguistics community.

Based on an innovative corpus-based approach, this book offers a comprehensive survey of the phonological and phonetic properties of L2 speech in English and German. The first part of the book critically examines current theoretical models and research methodologies in the field of second language acquisition of phonology and describes the advances that have been made in corpus linguistics over the past few years - in particular, the development of phonological learner corpora. It furthermore presents the first learner corpus of L2 English and L2 German that is fully aligned and has extensive phonological annotations: the LeaP corpus. The second part of the book describes the results of the quantitative and qualitative corpus analyses in the following areas of non-native speech: fluency, final consonant cluster realisation, vowel reduction and speech rhythm, intonation and general foreign accent. In addition, the influence of many non-linguistic factors, including instruction and a stay abroad, on the phonological properties of non-native speech is explored.

A conversation between two people can only take place if the words intended by each speaker are successfully recognized. Spoken word recognition is at the heart of language comprehension. This automatic and smooth process remains a challenge for models of spoken word recognition. Both the process of mapping the speech signal onto stored representations for words, and the format of the representation themselves are subject to debate. So far, existing research on the nature of spoken word representations has focused mainly on native speakers. The picture becomes even more complex when looking at spoken word recognition in a second language. Given that most of the world’s speakers know and use more than one language, it is crucial to reach a more precise understanding of how bilingual and multilingual individuals encode spoken words in the mental lexicon, and why spoken word recognition is more difficult in a second language than in the native language. Current models of native spoken word recognition operate under two assumptions: (i) that listeners’ perception of the incoming speech signal is optimal; and (ii) that listeners’ lexical representations are accurate. As a result, lexical representations are easily activated, and intended words are successfully recognized. However, these assumptions are compromised when applied to a later-learned second language. For a variety of reasons (e.g., phonetic/phonological, orthographic), second language users may not perceive the speech signal optimally, and they may still be refining the motor routines needed for articulation. Accordingly, their lexical representations may differ from those of native speakers, which may in turn inhibit their selection of the intended word forms. Second language users also have to solve a larger selection challenge—having words in more than one language to choose from. Thus, for second language users, the links between perception, lexical representations, orthography, and production are all but clear. Even for simultaneous bilinguals, important questions remain about the specificity and interdependence of their lexical representations and the factors influencing cross-language word activation. This Frontiers Research Topic seeks to further our understanding of the factors that determine how multilinguals recognize and encode spoken words in the mental lexicon, with a focus on the mapping between the input and lexical representations, and on the quality of lexical representations.