The Role of Native Language Transfer and Task Formality in the Acquisition of Spanish Spirantization

Abstract

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

“…In learners of pseudowords or novel languages, and in beginner L2 learners, orthographic effects are stronger with orthographic input than without (Rafat, 2016;Zampini, 1994). However, in the present study, orthographic input had no effect on real words produced by L2 speakers who had been learning English for most of their lives.…”

“…The second experiment tested whether these orthographic effects were modulated by the presence or absence of orthographic input. In learners of novel languages (Young-Scholten, 2002), beginner L2 learners (Zampini, 1994) and experienced L2 speakers producing pseudowords (Rafat, 2016), orthographic effects are stronger if orthographic input is provided, compared with tasks with no orthographic input. However, it is not known whether the presence of orthographic input affects experienced L2 speakers producing real words.…”

“…Third, the study investigated an orthography-induced phonological contrast that does not exist in the phonological system of the target language. Although there is evidence that beginner learners and naïve learners of novel languages may make phonological contrasts that do not exist in the target language (Zampini, 1994), there is arguably no experimental evidence of such a phenomenon in experienced L2 speakers. Vokic (2011) is the closest example, but the study showed that experienced L2 speakers produce the same sound as [t] or [d], a contrast that exists in the target language.…”

“…For example, some English L1 beginner learners of Spanish L2 produce [v] in Spanish words spelled with a <v>, because this is what the grapheme <v> represents in their native English, whereas in Spanish it represents [b], and [v] does not exist (Zampini, 1994). Such effects of native grapheme-phoneme correspondences have been found repeatedly in language learners (Pytlyk, 2011), including advanced speakers learning L2 pseudowords (Escudero, Hayes-Harb, & Mitterer, 2008), even leading beginners to produce sounds that do not exist in the target language (Zampini, 1994). The effect of orthography on L2 phonology must be understood for effective research into both L1 phonology and L2 phonological development.…”

The Influence of Attention to Language Form on the Production of Weak Forms by Polish Learners of English

“…The obtained results accorded with Weinberger's findings in that increased accuracy was not significantly correlated with increased task formality. Zampini (1994) focused on the acquisition of the spirantized allophones of Spanish voiced stops by native speakers of English. The participants were required to answer a series of questions (the informal task) and read a text passage (the formal task).…”