Integrating articulatory constraints into models of second language phonological acquisition

Colantoni, Laura; Steele, Jeffrey

doi:10.1017/s0142716408080223

Cited by 56 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The findings of the study (discussed in §4 and §5) support previous research (Colantoni & Steele 2008) that not only are perceptual factors at play during second language acquisition, but also general articulatory concerns. Continuing to define the roles of perception and articulation in L2 acquisition processes will help to develop more explanatory theories of L2 phonological acquisition.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Investigating L2 Acquisition of Spanish Vocalic Sequences

MacLeod

2012

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While previous studies have investigated the acquisition of Spanish vowels by English speakers, none has examined how sequences of vowels are acquired. This study considers the developmental path of acquisition of diphthongs and hiatus by English-speaking learners of Spanish. Previous studies have found that duration is a robust acoustic cue to the difference between a diphthong and a hiatus (Face & Alvord 2004, Hualde & Prieto 2002. This study investigates how the durational difference is manifest in the speech of L2 learners of Spanish and how its realization changes as a function of proficiency in Spanish. In addition, transfer of a phonological constraint in English barring homorganic consonant-glide (CG) onset clusters (Davis & Hammond 1995, Ohala & Kawasaki-Fukumori 1997 and phonetic transfer of the relative intensity values of English glides, which have been found to be lower in English (MacLeod 2008), onto production of Spanish glides are also investigated. A delayed-repetition task with English and Spanish tokens tested 4 groups of speakers: beginning learners, intermediate learners, native Spanish speakers, and native English speakers. The results show that the learners produce a durational difference similar to the native speakers (in that hiatus were, on average, longer than diphthongs), but that the duration of the individual vowels was longer in the speech of the learners as compared to the native speakers. Transfer of the phonological constraint against homorganic CG clusters was found to some extent since glides in homorganic CG clusters were marginally statistically significantly longer than those in non-homorganic clusters in the speech of the beginning learners, but not for native Spanish speakers. In contrast, phonetic transfer of the relative intensity norms of English onto Spanish was not found since the learners produced Spanish glides with a higher relative intensity than the native Spanish speakers. The salience of duration and intensity for English speakers are discussed in concert with general articulatory concerns, both of the vocalic sequences themselves and in terms of the surrounding consonants.

show abstract

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Investigating L2 Acquisition of Spanish Vocalic Sequences

MacLeod

2012

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Major 1986 andWaltmunson 2005), and taps in an onset cluster were produced later than intervocalic taps (e.g. Colantoni &Steele 2008, Major 1986 andWaltmunson Brought to you by | Nanyang Technological University Authenticated Download Date | 6/1/15 3:14 AM 2005). However, it remains to be seen how tap and trill production develops in these two environments.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intervocalic Tap and Trill Production in the Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language

Rose

2010

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research on tap and trill acquisition by learners and native speakers of Spanish has analyzed production in phonological tap and trill environments separately, which makes it difficult to ascertain whether learners differentiate their production or if the same sound is produced in both environments. Therefore, the current study investigates individual speaker production to determine if learners produce contrasting sounds in phonological tap and trill environments and defines the developmental stages that occur as learners begin to differentiate between taps and trills. Thirty participants completed a narrative task: 24 learners and six native speakers. Results suggest learners pass through five stages before they differentiate between both environments. This process involves learning to tap followed by learning to associate frication (i.e. trill, tap+, and assibilated variants) with the phonological trill environment.

show abstract

“…Although special emphasis was put on the effects of Age of Learning (AOL), Brought to you by | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services Authenticated Download Date | 5/27/15 3:43 PM they found that the accuracy with which L2 vowels were produced was limited by how accurately they were perceived. Other research studies on speech perception and/or production based on the hypotheses of the SLM include Aoyama et al (2004); Baker et al (2002); Chen and Fon (2007); Cheon (2007); Colantoni and Steele (2008); Ingvalson et al (2011);Evans (2007, 2009);Larson-Hall (2004); Mennen (1998); Segui and Halle (2001);and Pilus (2003). Regardless of the focuses of the studies and of whether the results categorically supported the SLM, it is evident that the similarity between the target and native languages has received increasing attention, and that speech perception is often intimately related to speech production.…”

Section: Research On the Speech Learning Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The perception and production of English speech sounds by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong

Chan¹

2014

Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article discusses the perception and production of English speech sounds by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong and examines the validity of the claims of the Speech Learning Model for explaining second language speech production by Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners. Forty university English majors participated in the study, which included two L2 speech perception tasks, two L1 L2 speech perception tasks, and three L2 speech production tasks. It is found that although the perceived similarity between the L1 and the L2 is inversely related to L2 speech perception, such an inverse relationship between perceived L1 L2 similarity and L2 speech production is not so straightforward and is often mediated by other widespread phonological phenomena such as final obstruent devoicing and final lateral vocalization. Speech perception and speech production, thus, do not bear a strict one-to-one relation, and correct discernment of a target sound does not necessarily lead to correct production. The predictions of the SLM regarding speech production do not seem to be entirely borne out. Further research is needed to investigate the perceptual and production abilities of ESL learners of other linguistic backgrounds.

show abstract

Integrating articulatory constraints into models of second language phonological acquisition

Cited by 56 publications

References 55 publications

Investigating L2 Acquisition of Spanish Vocalic Sequences

Investigating L2 Acquisition of Spanish Vocalic Sequences

Intervocalic Tap and Trill Production in the Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language

The perception and production of English speech sounds by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About