Hostname: page-component-7f64f4797f-bnl7t Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-04T00:58:58.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN L2 SPEECH PERCEPTION RESEARCH AND PHONOLOGICAL THEORY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2004

Paola Escudero  and
Paul Boersma
Paola Escudero
Affiliation:
Utrecht University
Paul Boersma
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A series of experiments shows that Spanish learners of English acquire the ship-sheep contrast in a way specific to their target dialect (Scottish or Southern British English) and that many learners exhibit a perceptual strategy found in neither Spanish nor English. To account for these facts as well as for the findings of earlier research on second language (L2) speech perception, we provide an Optimality Theoretic model of phonological categorization that comes with a formal learning algorithm for its acquisition. Within this model, the dialect-dependent and L2-specific facts provide evidence for the hypotheses of Full Transfer and Full Access.We would like to thank the audiences of the 25th Penn Linguistics Colloquium (Philadelphia, 2001), Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 2001 (Palmela), and EuroSLA 11 (Paderborn, 2001) and of talks in Lisbon, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Utrecht, and Munich, all in 2001 as well, for their questions and remarks, and Rachel Hayes, Michael Sharwood Smith, and five anonymous SSLA reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. This research was partially sponsored by grant 355-75-003 to Boersma from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 2004 , pp. 551 - 585
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Best, C. (1995). A direct realist view of cross-language speech perception. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and methodological issues (pp. 171–204). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Best, C., McRoberts, G., & Goodell, E. (2001). Discrimination of non-native consonant contrasts varying in perceptual assimilation to the listener's native phonological system. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 109, 775–794.Google Scholar
Boersma, P. (1998). Functional phonology (Doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam). The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.
Boersma, P., Escudero, P., & Hayes, R. (2003). Learning abstract phonological from auditory phonetic categories: An integrated model for the acquisition of language-specific sound categories. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1013–1016.
Boersma, P., & Hayes, B. (2001). Empirical tests of the Gradual Learning Algorithm. Linguistic Inquiry, 21, 45–86.Google Scholar
Bohn, O.-S. (1995). Cross language speech perception in adults: First language transfer doesn't tell it all. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and methodological issues (pp. 279–304). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Bohn, O.-S., & Flege, J. E. (1990). Interlingual identification and the role of foreign language experience in L2 vowel perception. Applied Psycholinguistics, 11, 303–328.Google Scholar
Bradlow, A. (1995). A comparative study of English and Spanish vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97, 1916–1924.Google Scholar
Bradlow, A. (1996). A perceptual comparison of the /i/-/e/ and /u/-/o/ contrasts in English and in Spanish: Universal and language-specific aspects. Phonetica, 53, 55–85.Google Scholar
Broselow, E., Chen, S.-I., & Wang, C. (1998). The emergence of the unmarked in second language phonology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 261–280.Google Scholar
Caramazza, A., Yeni-Komshian, G., Zurif, E., & Carbone, E. (1973). The acquisition of a new phonological contrast: The case of stop consonants in French-English bilinguals. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 54, 421–428.Google Scholar
Davidson, L. (1997). An Optimality Theoretic approach to second language acquisition. Unpublished honors thesis, Brown University, Providence, RI.
Eckman, F. R. (1981). On the naturalness of interlanguage phonological rules. Language Learning, 31, 195–216.Google Scholar
Escudero, P. (2001). The role of the input in the development of L1 and L2 sound contrasts: Language-specific cue weighting for vowels. In A. H.-J. Do, L. Dominguez, & A. Johansen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 250–261). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Escudero, P. (2002). The perception of English vowel contrasts: Acoustic cue reliance in the development of new contrasts. In J. Leather & A. James (Eds.), New sounds 2000: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second-Language Speech (pp. 122–131). Klagenfurt, Austria: University of Klagenfurt.
Escudero, P. & Boersma, P. (2002). The subset problem in L2 perceptual development: Multiple-category assimilation by Dutch learners of Spanish. In B. Skarabela, S. Fish, & A. H.-J. Do (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 208–219). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Escudero, P., & Boersma, P. (2003). Modeling the perceptual development of phonological contrasts with Optimality Theory and the Gradual Learning Algorithm. In S. Arunachalam, E. Kaiser, & A. Williams (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium, Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, 8, 71–85.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E. (1987). The production of “new” and “similar” phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification. Journal of Phonetics, 15, 47–65.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E. (1991). The interlingual identification of Spanish and English vowels: Orthographic evidence. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43A, 701–731.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and methodological issues (pp. 233–277). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Flege, J. E., Bohn, O.-S., & Jang, S. (1997). Effects of experience on non-native speakers' production and perception of English vowels. Journal of Phonetics, 25, 437–470.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., & Eefting, W. (1987). Cross-language switching in stop consonant production and perception by Dutch speakers of English. Speech Communication, 6, 185–202.Google Scholar
Fox, R. A., Flege, J. E., & Munro, M. J. (1995). The perception of English and Spanish vowels by native English and Spanish listeners: A multidimensional scaling analysis. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97, 2540–2550.Google Scholar
Gerrits, E. (2001). The categorisation of speech sounds by adults and children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Gottfried, T., & Beddor, P. (1988). Perception of temporal and spectral information in French vowels. Language and Speech, 31, 57–75.Google Scholar
Guion, S., Flege, J. E., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Pruitt, J. (2000). An investigation of current models of second language speech perception: The case of Japanese adults' perception of English consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 2711–2724.Google Scholar
Hancin-Bhatt, B. (1997). Extended Full Transfer/Full Access in L2 sound patterns: A prolegomena. In J. Leather & A. James (Eds.), New sounds '97: Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second-Language Speech (pp. 109–117). Klagenfurt, Austria: University of Klagenfurt.
Hancin-Bhatt, B. (2000). Optimality in second language phonology: Codas in Thai ESL. Second Language Research, 16, 201–232.Google Scholar
Hancin-Bhatt, B., & Bhatt, R. (1997). Optimal L2 syllables: Interactions of transfer and developmental effects. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 331–378.Google Scholar
Hayes, R. (2000). Reranking stages in OT analysis of the acquisition of Japanese as a second language. Carolina Working Papers in Linguistics, 1, 1–21.Google Scholar
Hayes, R. (2001). An Optimality-Theoretic account of novel phonetic category formation in second language learning. Unpublished manuscript, University of Arizona, Tucson.
Hayes, R. (2002). The perception of novel phoneme contrasts in a second language: A development study of native speakers of English learning Japanese singleton and geminate consonant contrasts. In R. Hayes, W. D. Lewis, E. L. O'Bryan, & T. S. Zamuner (Eds.), University of Arizona Coyote Working Papers, 12: Language in Cognitive Science (pp. 28–41). Tucson: University of Arizona.
Hewlett, N., Matthews, B., & Scobbie, J. (1999). Vowel duration in Scottish English speaking children. Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2157–2160.
Labov, W. (1994). Principles of linguistic change: Vol. 1. Internal factors. Oxford: Blackwell.
Major, R. C. (1987). A model for interlanguage phonology. In G. Ioup & S. H. Weinberger (Eds.), Interlanguage phonology: The acquisition of a second language sound system (pp. 101–124). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Maye, J., Werker, J. F., & Gerken, L. A. (2002). Infant sensitivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination. Cognition, 82, B101–B111.Google Scholar
McClure, J. D. (1977). Vowel duration in a Scottish accent. Journal of the International Phonetics Association, 7, 10–16.Google Scholar
Morrison, G. S. (2002). Perception of English /i/ and /I/ by Japanese and Spanish Listeners: Longitudinal results. In G. S. Morrison & L. Zsoldos (Eds.), Proceedings of the North West Linguistics Conference 2002 (pp. 29–48). Burnaby, Canada: Simon Fraser University Linguistics Graduate Student Association.
Nittrouer, S. (1992). Age-related differences in perceptual effects of formant transitions within syllables and across syllable boundaries. Journal of Phonetics, 20, 1–32.Google Scholar
Nittrouer, S. (1996). Discriminability and perceptual weighting of some acoustic cues to speech perception by 3-year-olds. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 39, 278–297.Google Scholar
Nittrouer, S., & Miller, M. E. (1997). Developmental weighting shifts for noise components of fricative-vowel syllables. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 102, 572–580.Google Scholar
Peterson, G. E., & Barney, H. L. (1952). Control methods used in a study of vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 24, 175–184.Google Scholar
Peterson, G. E., & Lehiste, I. (1960). Duration of syllable nuclei in English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 32, 693–703.Google Scholar
Polivanov, E. D. (1931). La perception des sons d'une langue étrangère [The perception of the sounds of a foreign language]. Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, 4, 79–96.Google Scholar
Prince, A., & Smolensky, P. (1993). Optimality Theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar (Tech. Rep. No. 2). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science.
Schwartz, B., & Sprouse, R. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model. Second Language Research, 12, 40–72.Google Scholar
Scobbie, J. A. (1998). Interactions between the acquisition of phonetics and phonology. In K. Gruber, D. Higgins, K. Olsen, & T. Wysochi (Eds.), Papers from the 34th annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society 2 (pp. 343–358). Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Scobbie, J., Turk, A., & Hewlett, N. (1999). Morphemes, phonetics and lexical items: The case of the Scottish vowel length rule. Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1617–1620.
Stevens, S. S., Volkmann, J., & Newman, E. B. (1937). A scale for the measurement of the psychological magnitude pitch. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 8, 185–190.Google Scholar
Tesar, B. (1995). Computational Optimality Theory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Tesar, B., & Smolensky, P. (1998). Learnability in Optimality Theory. Linguistic Inquiry, 29, 229–268.Google Scholar
Tesar, B., & Smolensky, P. (2000). Learnability in Optimality Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
von Helmholtz, H. (1910). Handbuch der physiologischen Optik [Handbook of physiological optics]: Vol. 3. Hamburg, Germany: Leopold Voss.
Wells, J. C. (1982a). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wells, J. C. (1982b). Accents of English 3: Beyond the British Isles. New York: Cambridge University Press.