Second‐Language Accent: The Relationship Between Discrimination and Perception in Acquisition*

Abstract

This paper reports on a study which measures the relationship between the discrimination and production of segmental and prosodic elements in a second language. The measures employed in the study also served to assess the effects of a phonetic training program for French as a second language designed by the authors. Two questions are addressed in the present study: 1) Is there a systematic relationship between perception and production of the sound system in a second language? 2) What effect does a period of systematic discrimination training in the second language have on this relationship? The measures employed included tests of discrimination and production for French phones, rhythm, and prosody. The subjects' production test results were judged by highly trained, native speakers of French. Subjects for the study included a treated group which had undergone the phonetic training program and an untreated group which had not. Both groups were simultaneously enrolled in French as a second language courses. Testing took place prior to the start of the French courses and at the end of the semester immediately after they had finished. Although the results of the study indicate that discrimination ability initially exceeds production ability, they also suggest that explicit training may disrupt this relationship.

The acquisition of English pronunciation: learners' views

“…Problems in the acquisition of pronunciation have provided the main arguments to support the critical age hypothesis (Singleton 1989), as it has been observed that most adult learners of a second language retain a foreign accent (Flege 1987;Major 1987a). Nevertheless, it has been argued that adults have the same ability as children to discriminate speech sounds (Schneiderman, Bourdages & Champagne 1988), but they perceive new sounds in terms of the categories of their first language (Best 1994;Polka 1995). It has also been suggested that age is not necessarily a causal factor in the acquisition of pronunciation and that motivation and identity are also influential (Major 1987a).…”

“…The acquisition of a second language phonetic component is a complex and dynamic process which is affected by the context and the conditions in which the second language is being learnt. Aptitude, affective and social factors have been pointed out as possible predictors of second language phonetic performance (Flege 1987;Schneiderman et al 1988). The ability to mimic has been reported to exert a significant influence on second language pronunciation (Suter 1976;Purcell & Suter 1980;Thompson 1991).…”

Notes and Discussion

“…Discrimination tasks are also incorporated into some production exercises. The focus on discrimination prior to production is based on an earlier study in which improvement in discrimination ability was shown to lead to improved production (Schneiderman, Bourdages and Champagne, 1988). Appendix A contains a catalogue of the phonetic elements and exercise types included in the phonetic training program.…”

Redefinition of the nativenear-native speaker of English

“…As Lowenberg (1986) Visual cues such as appearance and body language could also be investigated using videotaped speech samples, and studies involving perception could be conducted to determine i f "nativeness of accent would vary as a function of one's ability to perceive segmental and supraseginental aspects of that language" (Schneiderman, Bourdages and Champagne, 1988 In this section, you will be asked to read a printed paragraph aloud. First, you will be given one mihute to read the paragraph silently to yourself.…”