scholarly journals Acquiring a new second language contrast: an analysis of the English laryngeal system of native speakers of Dutch

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Simon
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Interesting Pattern ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
And Training

This study examines the acquisition of the English laryngeal system by native speakers of (Belgian) Dutch. Both languages have a two-way laryngeal system, but while Dutch contrasts prevoiced with short-lag stops, English has a contrast between short-lag and long-lag stops. The primary aim of the article is to test two hypotheses on the acquisition process based on first language acquisition research: (1) native speakers of a voicing language will succeed in producing short-lag stops in the target aspirating language, since short-lag stops occur early in first language acquisition and can be considered unmarked and since one member of the contrast is formed by short-lag stops in both voicing and aspirating languages, and (2) native speakers of a voicing language will succeed in acquiring long-lag stops in the target language, because aspiration is an acoustically salient realization. The analysis is based on an examination of natural speech data (conversations between dyads of informants), combined with the results of a controlled reading task. Both types of data were gathered in Dutch as well as in EngDutch(i.e. the English speech of native speakers of Dutch). The analysis revealed an interesting pattern: while the first language (L1) Dutch speakers were successful in acquiring long-lag aspirated stops (confirming hypothesis 2), they did not acquire English short-lag stops (rejecting hypothesis 1). Instead of the target short-lag stops, the L1 Dutch speakers produced prevoiced stops and frequently transferred regressive voice assimilation with voiced stops as triggers from Dutch into English. Various explanations for this pattern in terms of acoustic salience, perceptual cues and training will be considered.

scholarly journals Phonological Processes in ESL Five-Year-Olds

1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Piper
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Structure Changes ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Esl Learners

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the acquisition of the sound system by fifteen ESL five-year-olds. Segmental consonant errors drawn from speech data collected over ten months were categorized according to eight phonological processes in three categories, assimilation. substitution, and syllable structure changes. Eighty-six percent of the errors corresponded to those identified by Ingram (1979) and others as universal in first language acquisition. The author advises caution in the interpretation of this result, however, since there were certain differences in the particular errors made by the ESL learners within each category as well as processes considered universal among first language learners which were not found among the ESL learners.

scholarly journals Cues and economy in the acquisition of verb movement

Nordlyd ◽  
10.7557/12.63 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Bentzen
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Movement Parameter ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
Traditional Sense

In this paper we will discuss how economy principles interact with cues in the input in bilingual first language acquisition. We will look at the acquisition of verb placement in a child acquiring English and Norwegian simultaneously. Based on data from this child, it will be argued that when faced with ambiguous cues with respect to the verb movement parameter, children do not necessarily adopt the default, less marked setting. Rather, they may opt for a setting which yields an overall consistent grammar, even when this grammar contains operations that are more costly than those used in the target language. We will suggest that economy in acquisition may involve consistency in a grammar in correlation with economy in the more traditional sense within minimalism, where moving an element in general is considered more costly than not moving it (Chomsky 1995).

Ambiguity and transfer in bilingual first language acquisition?

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEANINE TREFFERS-DALLER
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Correct Position ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
German Child ◽  
Finite Verb

Natascha Müller presents a very interesting analysis of the structure of the German subordinate clause in bilingual first language acquisition. The main issue in this paper is to explain the fact that some bilingual children – but not all of them – display non-target language structures in German subordinate clauses. That is, the finite verb does not appear in the final position of the subordinate clause. These non-target structures can in part be explained by transfer, but this cannot be the whole story, because some monolingual children produce these structures as well. Bilingual children, though, appear to have problems with the German subordinate clause more frequently than monolingual children. Interestingly, acquiring the target structures is a slow process for children who produce non-target structures. Ivar, the French-German child Müller discusses in most detail, for example, needs two years to acquire the correct position of the finite verb in German subordinate clauses. Müller argues that the problems arise because the input children receive is ambiguous: the finite verb does not always appear in the finite position in German subordinate clauses in adult speech. The ambiguity of this situation opens the way to transfer. In their uncertainty, the children turn to their other language as a relief strategy.

Explaining Variation And Change In Spanish Peripheral Fricatives

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Mazzaro
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Social Motivations ◽  
Main Factors

AbstractThe variation between labial and velar fricatives ([f] > [x], e.g. [x]uego fuego ‘fire,’ [x]umar fumar ‘to smoke’) frequently occurs in disparate Spanish dialects (from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, New Mexico, among others) (Quilis 1993) and it is found in first language acquisition (Eblen 1982 and Greenlee 1992). The change [f] > [x] or [x] > [f] has also been observed in other languages such as English, Diola, Chinese, Tuareg, Hausa, among others (Foulkes 1997). Although the variation between [f] and [x] is so common cross-linguistically, there is no adequate understanding of the linguistic and social motivations that affect it. Using the variationist sociolinguistics framework (Labov 1972 and Weinreich, Labov & Herzog 1968), this study analyzes the variation of such fricatives in the speech of 25 native speakers of Corrientes (Argentine) Spanish. Results indicate that two main factors affect [f] > [x] variation in Spanish: i) phonetic context and ii) literacy (or lack of formal education).

scholarly journals Lithuanian spoken corpora and studies of first language acquisition: a view from outside

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Elena Riekhakaynen
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Speech Corpus ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Speech Corpora ◽  
Corpus Data

The paper provides an overview of Lithuanian spontaneous speech corpora and certain studies of the acquisition of Lithuanian as a first language. The author focuses mainly on those resources and papers that are published in English and thus can be used by non-Lithuanian speaking researchers as methodological and/or theoretical inspiration for further studies on different languages. Among the spoken corpora discussed in the paper are: the speech corpus Liepa, Sakytinės kalbos įrašų bazė, the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian. The author pays special attention to the latter as it is closely connected to the development of the Lithuanian corpus of child and child-directed speech. The studies of the acquisition of Lithuanian as a first language are overviewed in the second part of the paper. The majority of studies on corpus data (including those conducted within international cross-linguistic projects) describe the acquisition of grammar by native speakers of Lithuanian. In the most recent research, there is a shift towards new aspects of first language acquisition (including phonology and morphophonology) and new methods (experiments becoming more and more popular).    

Acquisition of the nominal case system in Russian as a second language

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832098805
Author(s):  
Natalia Cherepovskaia ◽  
Natalia Slioussar ◽  
Anna Denissenko Denissenko
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Case System

Using written texts elicited from students with different proficiency levels, we studied the acquisition of nominal cases in Russian as a second language. We established the order in which cases were acquired (nominative, locative, accusative, genitive, instrumental, and dative), as well as certain characteristics of their acquisition trajectories. We argue that the order of acquisition is determined by two groups of factors: how essential a given case is for successful language use and how complex it is, both semantically and morphologically. Many important differences between first and second language acquisition were identified. The maturation of the case system was observed both in the number of correct forms participants produced and in error rates. The distribution of correct forms changed, gradually approaching that found for native speakers. With growth in proficiency, the incidence of different error types declined, and the relative frequency of errors more characteristic of first language acquisition increased.

Infant-Directed Speech Effects in Adult Artificial Grammar Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Sára Lukics ◽  
Ágnes Lukács
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Learning Rates

First language acquisition is facilitated by several characteristics of infant-directed speech, but we know little about their relative contribution to learning different aspects of language. We investigated infant-directed speech effects on the acquisition of a linear artificial grammar in two experiments. We examined the effect of incremental presentation of strings (starting small) and prosody (comparing monotonous, arbitrary and phrase prosody). Presenting shorter strings before longer ones led to higher learning rates compared to random presentation. Prosody marking phrases had a similar effect, yet, prosody without marking syntactic units did not facilitate learning. These studies were the first to test the starting small effect with a linear artificial grammar, and also the first to investigate the combined effect of starting small and prosody. Our results suggest that starting small and prosody facilitate the extraction of regularities from artificial linguistic stimuli, indicating they may play an important role in natural language acquisition.

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