Native and Nonnative Perception of Western Andalusian Spanish /S/ Aspiration in Quiet and Noise

Abstract

Many college students set out on Study Abroad Programs to other countries in which the variant of the foreign language spoken in the region differs from the variant to which learners have been exposed. This study explores the perception of L2 Western Andalusian Spanish aspiration of word-final /s/ by L1 American English listeners, in relation to their length of exposure to the L2 in quiet conditions and to their competence level in the L2 in noisy conditions. Results indicate that perception drops in adverse conditions, particularly for listeners in their intermediate stages of learning. Proficient listeners’ perception also suffers with respect to native listeners’ performance at lower signal-to-noise ratios. For all listeners, native and nonnative, standard features are best identified, whether in quiet or noise.

Do Learners Connect Sociophonetic Variation With Regional and Social Characteristics?

“…Before learners can link phonetic variation with social meaning, they must first learn to associate different variants with a single variable, and three recent studies explored how learners perceive the variants of coda /s/ (Del Saz, 2019; Escalante, 2018; Schmidt, 2018). These studies usually appeal to some combination of the aforementioned PAM-L2, SLM, and L2LP models.…”

“…In the most recent study (Del Saz, 2019), perception of Western Andalusian aspiration of word-final /s/ was compared in contexts of quiet and noise for three groups of learners (18 learners prior to SA, 14 within the third week of immersion in Seville, and 20 after 2 months in Seville). Unlike the prior studies, real, rather than nonce, words were used and learners were required to select what sentence had been uttered among two options of sentences in which the contrast was between either a second- or third-person present verb or a singular versus plural noun (i.e., whether the form ended with /s/).…”

“…This sociolinguistic competence, in addition to strategies for successful communication (i.e., strategic competence) and the more straightforward grammatical competence targeted in traditional classrooms, contributes to communicative competence (Canale & Swain, 1980; Tarone, 2007). This work has predominantly focused on development within variable areas of learner grammars (i.e., morphosyntactic variability), although the L2 perception of sociophonetic variation is of increasing attention to researchers (e.g., Del Saz, 2019; Escalante, 2018; Geeslin & Schmidt, 2018; Schmidt, 2018; Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017).…”