Orthography affects second language speech: Double letters and geminate production in English.

Abstract

Second languages (L2s) are often learned through spoken and written input, and L2 orthographic forms (spellings) can lead to non-native-like pronunciation. The present study investigated whether orthography can lead experienced learners of English L2 to make a phonological contrast in their speech production that does not exist in English. Double consonants represent geminate (long) consonants in Italian but not in English. In Experiment 1, native English speakers and English L2 speakers (Italians) were asked to read aloud English words spelled with a single or double target consonant letter, and consonant duration was compared. The English L2 speakers produced the same consonant as shorter when it was spelled with a single letter, and longer when spelled with a double letter. Spelling did not affect consonant duration in native English speakers. In Experiment 2, effects of orthographic input were investigated by comparing 2 groups of English L2 speakers (Italians) performing a delayed word repetition task with or without orthographic input; the same orthographic effects were found in both groups. These results provide arguably the first evidence that L2 orthographic forms can lead experienced L2 speakers to make a contrast in their L2 production that does not exist in the language. The effect arises because L2 speakers are affected by the interaction between the L2 orthographic form (number of letters), and their native orthography-phonology mappings, whereby double consonant letters represent geminate consonants. These results have important implications for future studies investigating the effects of orthography on native phonology and for L2 phonological development models.

Effects of L1 orthography and L1 phonology on L2 English pronunciation

“…L1 orthography affected L2 speakers' consonant duration in English, in line with previous findings. Both learners and late bilinguals produced the same English consonant as longer when it was spelled with double letters than when it was spelled with a single letter, whereas spelling did not affect native speakers' consonant duration, as found in previous studies (Bassetti 2017;Bassetti & al., under review). The learners' mean closure duration ratio of 1.43 was smaller than the ratios found by Bassetti (2017) with similar participants (1.66 in a word reading task, and 1.70 in two word repetition tasks), but both the learners' and the bilinguals' ratios were similar to the 1.38-1.39 ratios reported by Bassetti and colleagues (under review).…”

“…manner). Bassetti (2017) reported that L1 Italian learners of L2 English tend to produce consonants as longer if they are represented with double consonant letters than when they are represented with single consonant letters (e.g. in floppy vs copy), although the magnitude of the effect is smaller than reported for their L1: consonants spelled with double consonant letters were on average 1.66 times as long as consonants spelled with single consonant letters.…”

“…It appears that L1 English speakers pronounced [b] and [v] following the grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences of their L1. Another orthographic effect was revealed by Bassetti (2017), who found that L1 Italian speakers of L2 English produce longer consonants when they are spelled with double consonant letters (e.g., in kitty vs city), because double consonant letters represent long consonants in their L1 orthography. These findings suggest that orthography can lead L2 speakers to produce a phonological category which does not exist in the target language.…”

“…All participants performed a word reading aloud task in English. We followed the same elicitation procedure as in Study 1 in Bassetti (2017): participants received a printed list of sentences, with one word underlined within each sentence. This was done in order to present target words in a natural context and to help participants recognise them.…”

Interrogations épistémologiques autour de l’oralité

“…Mais ajouter la visualisation des traits parlés par le support écrit développe la conscience phonologique plus efficacement, nous y reviendrons. Des recherches récentes montrent que l'exposition à l'input écrit a des effets positifs dans la prononciation en L2 (Escudero 2015 ;Bassetti, 2017). La norme agit conjointement, sur les choix parlés des acteurs ; la tendance au relâchement des syllabes ( ouais, j'sais) peut devenir une norme acceptable dans une situation privée.…”