The acquisition of a second language phonology: Interaction of transfer and developmental factors

1982 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Frant Hecht ◽  
Randa Mulford
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Relative Difficulty ◽  
Second Language Phonology ◽  
Developmental Factors ◽  
Phonological Knowledge ◽  
Naturalistic Setting ◽  
Child Learning

ABSTRACTThe acquisition of a second language phonology is examined with reference to two hypotheses: (1) the developmental position that second language phonology acquisition parallels first language acquisition versus (2) the transfer position that the learner’s phonological knowledge in the first language directly influences acquisition of a second language phonology. These two hypotheses are evaluated in light of data from a six-year-old Icelandic child learning English in a naturalistic setting, with particular emphasis on fricatives and affricates. This child’s phonological acquisition is best accounted for as a systematicinteractionbetween transfer from the first language and developmental processes. Transfer best predicts the relative difficulty of particular segments, while the developmental hypothesis best predicts which sounds will be substituted for those difficult segments.

The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

2019 ◽  
pp. 361-379
Author(s):  
John Rothgerber
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Pronunciation Instruction ◽  
Primary Focus

This chapter will provide the language teacher with an introduction to the theory behind the challenges and problems that learners from a variety of language backgrounds face as they learn to pronounce the sounds of English. The primary focus will be on the influence of the first language in second language phonological acquisition. This will include an overview of the role of perception of non-native sounds, as well as a consideration of phonological representation in the mental lexicon and articulatory constraints, all of which can have an effect on difficulties that learners encounter as they learn to pronounce English sounds. Attention will be given to the various components that make up the phonological system, including segmentals, suprasegmentals, phonotactics, and phonological processes. This theoretical understanding will then be applied to pronunciation instruction within the classroom by addressing what teachers can do to maximize the effectiveness of instruction.

Natural Phonology and Second Language Acquisition

1996 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Niclas Abrahamsson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Original Theory ◽  
Preliminary Model ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Promising Application ◽  
Phonetic Value

This paper looks at whether Natural Phonology can be directly applied to second language acquisition. First, the original theory, as presented by Stampe and Donegan in the 1970s, is outlined. Secondly, its application to first language acquisition is presented, as this is highly crucial for the following discussion on the naturalness of second language phonology. Thirdly, an attempt is made to establish a preliminary model of the application to second language speech. Findings indicate that Natural Phonology is able to, if not resolve, then at least shed some light on a controversial issue in second language research, namely the distinction between interference and development. With the dichotomy of processes vs. rules offered by Natural Phonology, and hence the interpretation of deviations in second language research as the result of failure of suppression and limitation of processes (instead of as the result of interference from LI phonological rules), the interference/ development distinction collapses. In addition, a principle of closest phonetic value' is postulated in order to explain substitutional variation across learners with differing LI backgrounds. Although highly promising, application of Natural Phonology to second language issues also raises inherent problems in the original theory that need to be resolved. Instead of the notions of innateness and latency of processes proposed by Stampean Natural Phonology, in this paper, suggestions are made concerning the brain's early programming of processes in the form of a model which covers both first and second language acquisition.

First-Language Acquisition After Childhood Differs From Second-Language Acquisition

1993 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1258-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel I. Mayberry
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Late Childhood ◽  
First Language Acquisition

This study determined whether the long-range outcome of first-language acquisition, when the learning begins after early childhood, is similar to that of second-language acquisition. Subjects were 36 deaf adults who had contrasting histories of spoken and sign language acquisition. Twenty-seven subjects were born deaf and began to acquire American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language at ages ranging from infancy to late childhood. Nine other subjects were born with normal hearing, which they lost in late childhood; they subsequently acquired ASL as a second language (because they had acquired spoken English as a first language in early childhood). ASL sentence processing was measured by recall of long and complex sentences and short-term memory for signed digits. Subjects who acquired ASL as a second language after childhood outperformed those who acquired it as a first language at exactly the same age. In addition, the performance of the subjects who acquired ASL as a first language declined in association with increasing age of acquisition. Effects were most apparent for sentence processing skills related to lexical identification, grammatical acceptability, and memory for sentence meaning. No effects were found for skills related to fine-motor production and pattern segmentation.

scholarly journals Research on Second Language: Offering New Alternative to Introduce Second Language to Children in Early Age through Youtube Channel

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Enni Akhmad Daud
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Silent Period ◽  
Early Age ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Age

This article is discussing about the children acquisition in second language. It is observing how a child acquires her second language through YouTube. It described the child age 3,7 years habit to watch video through YouTube. The daily notes were taken to see the child’s words, sentences, and also reaction after watching the video intensively for two months. The research observation result shown that a child starts her acquiring by perceiving the language through silent period. She needs 3-5 times to watch a video, and then she is able to imitate words and sentences in video, even though her pronunciation is not fluency yet. Moreover, she does not really understand about the meaning of the words or sentences. It is indicated that the children age 3,7 years old still has difficulties to understand the beyond meaning of the words or sentences. The implication of this research is to show the stages of children in acquiring their second language which is similar to their first language acquisition. Therefore, teaching and learning second language should not be different from teaching and learning first language.

The intonation of Chota Valley Spanish: Contact-induced phenomena at the discourse-phonology interface

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajiv Rao ◽  
Sandro Sessarego
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Phrase Boundary ◽  
Acquisition Strategies ◽  
Pitch Accents

Abstract This study offers a prosodic analysis of broad focus declarative sentences in Chota Valley Spanish (CVS), an Afro-Hispanic dialect of Ecuador. Findings indicate that its phonological inventory of pitch accents and phrase boundary tones appears to be significantly simplified in comparison to what has been reported for other native, non-contact varieties of Spanish. In particular, we observe a strong tendency in CVS toward duplicating nuclear and prenuclear pitch accents, as well as phrase boundary tones. We analyze these results in terms of contact-induced phenomena related to a process of first language acquisition of advanced second language acquisition strategies, which appear to be hampered by processability constraints applying at the discourse-phonology interface. The study’s implications are discussed with respect to the debate concerning the origins of this dialect and several other Afro-Hispanic Languages of the Americas.

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