Spanish native speakers are known to pronounce onset /sC/ clusters in English with a prothetic vowel, as in esport for sport, due to their native language phonotactic constraints. We assessed whether accurate production of e.g. spi instead of espi was related to accurate perceptual discrimination of this contrast in second language (L2) speech of Spanish–English sequential bilinguals. A same–different discrimination task in stimulus pairs such as spi–espi assessed speech perception and a phonemic verbal fluency task elicited speech production. Logistic mixed model regressions revealed significant differences in accuracy between the bilinguals and the English monolinguals, although some bilinguals performed within the monolingual range. For the production task, but not for the perception task, bilinguals with more exposure to English and greater grammatical knowledge of English performed significantly more accurately than those with less exposure and lower grammatical knowledge. There was no significant correlation between production accuracy and perception accuracy. Through examining phonotactic constraints, these results expand a growing body of research into single sounds which suggests dissociations between L2 perception and production. In contrast to predictions made by L2 speech models, the findings indicate that accurate L2 perception is neither necessary nor sufficient for accurate L2 production, and instead are interpreted to indicate that the two capacities recruit different executive control mechanisms and are acquired – at least to a certain extent – independently in L2 acquisition.

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Previous research found that second language (L2) experience may cause an interaction between first language (L1) and L2 categories. This study examines the effect of L2 experience on L1 and L2 stop perception. Three groups of Spanish learners of English varying in L2 experience completed a /p/-/b/ identification task—which included stimuli varying along a Voice Onset Time continuum—in each language. Results suggested that L2 experience improves the perception of L2 stops, but that it also affects L1 perception. Moreover, all groups appeared to have a shared L1-L2 category for bilabial stops, as perception patterns did not differ between languages.

The degree of similarity between the sounds of a speaker’s first and second language (L1 and L2) is believed to determine the likelihood of accurate perception and production of the L2 sounds. This paper explores the relationship between cross-linguistic similarity and the perception and production of a subset of English vowels, including the highly productive /iː/-/ɪ/ contrast (as in “beat” vs. “bit”), by a group of Spanish/Catalan native speakers learning English as an L2. The learners’ ability to identify, discriminate and produce the English vowels accurately was contrasted with their cross-linguistic perceived similarity judgements. The results showed that L2 perception and production accuracy was not always predicted from patterns of cross-language similarity, particularly regarding the difficulty distinguishing /iː/ and /ɪ/. Possible explanations may involve the way the L2 /iː/ and /ɪ/ categories interact, the effect of non-native acoustic cue reliance, and the roles of orthography and language instruction.

The revised version of the Speech Learning Model (SLM-r) regards full-time equivalent (FTE), which involves the amount of L2 use during the length of residence (LOR) in an L2 setting, as the main factor in L2 speech acquisition. Previous studiesshowed that LOR has a significant effect on L2 and L1 production and perception but does not explain differences between populations (i.e., L1-Spanish L2-English vs. L1-English L2-Spanish). A reanalysis of the data has been conducted by calculating the FTE of the experienced participants. The aim was also to investigate whether the assumptions of the SLM-r are applicable to L1 and L2 perception. A series of correlation tests between FTE and category boundary—between voiced and voiceless stops—was conducted, yielding non-significant results. The relatively short LOR of participants, the quality of the input and differences in terms of L2 instruction between participants could explain the lack of a clear effect of FTE in this study. Therefore, FTE on its own may not be sufficient to account for L2 accuracy in perception, at least for L2 speakers with limited L2 input, and other factors should be considered.