Bilingual pronunciation and first language dominancy

Abstract

Literature on Sri Lankan English, through reasonable deduction, states that deviations from Standard Sri Lankan English (SSLE) pronunciationis a feature of Sinhala dominancy in Sinhala/Other Variety Sri Lankan English (S/OVSLE) bilinguals or Tamil dominancy in Tamil/Other Variety Sri Lankan English (T/OVSLE) bilinguals. This study using standard statistical procedures collates the difference in the mean values of self-declared competence in First Language (L1) and Second Language (L2) across the four skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening with the difference in rate of usage of L1 and L2 in selected social and personal domains to calculate L1 dominancy in each bilingual participant (n= 185). Then the rate of occurrence of selected deviations from SSLE pronunciation in each participant is estimated. The correlation between the independent variable L1 dominancyand the dependent variable rate of occurrence of selected deviations from SSLE pronunciation in the populations is illustrated through scatter diagrams, calculation of the Pearson Correlation and the Coefficient of Determination. Statistical analysis shows that there is a medium 9% and a moderate 11% correlation between L1 dominancy and rate of occurrence of deviations from SSLE pronunciation in S/OVSLE and T/OVSLE bilinguals respectively.