An investigation of the production of ejectives by native (L1) and second (L2) language speakers of Q'eqchi' Mayan

A longitudinal study of the second language acquisition of a three-way stop contrast

“…One such study, Levy (2009), showed that L1 English naïve listeners and L2 learners differed in their perceptual assimilation of certain French vowels. Wagner and Baker-Smemoe (2013), on the other hand, reported no differences between L1 English naïve listeners and L2 learners in their perceptual assimilation of Q'eqchi' Mayan stops, despite the fact that the L2 learners in that study were very experienced and had lived in an immersion environment. Other studies have tested perceptual assimilation in L2 learners (e.g.…”

“…Can the perceptual assimilation of certain L2 sounds change so dramatically after only a few weeks of L2 learning? It has been suggested that perceptual assimilation may not change with L2 learning (Wagner & Baker-Smemoe, 2013). Perceptual assimilation patterns may instead depend not only on factors such as the L1-L2 acoustic correspondences and the individual segments under investigation, but also on other factors such as orthography.…”

Mayan phonology

“…There is a sizable literature on the phonetics of glottalized stops across Mayan. An incomplete list includes Campbell (), Kingston (), Pinkerton (), Russell (), Burnett‐Deas (), Shosted (), Frazier () and Wagner & Baker‐Smemoe (), as well as the many descriptive grammars which include phonetic detail in their discussion of ejectives and implosives.…”

Non-word repetition may reveal different errors in naive listeners and second language learners

“…It is true that naïve listeners and L2 listeners from the same L1 background do not always differ in their perception of a nonnative contrast (e.g. Wagner & Baker-Smemoe, 2013), and it is implicit in many study designs that the perception of naïve listeners represents the "starting point" of L2 acquisition (e.g. Sturman et al, 2016).…”