Second language attainment and first language attrition: The case of VOT in immersed Dutch–German late bilinguals

Antje Stoehr; Titia Benders; Janet G van Hell; Paula Fikkert

doi:10.1177/0267658317704261

Second language attainment and first language attrition: The case of VOT in immersed Dutch–German late bilinguals

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658317704261 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

pp. 483-518 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Antje Stoehr ◽

Titia Benders ◽

Janet G van Hell ◽

Paula Fikkert

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

First Language ◽

Onset Time ◽

The Other ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

L1 Attrition ◽

At Home ◽

Late Bilinguals

Speech of late bilinguals has frequently been described in terms of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from the native language (L1) to the second language (L2), but CLI from the L2 to the L1 has received relatively little attention. This article addresses L2 attainment and L1 attrition in voicing systems through measures of voice onset time (VOT) in two groups of Dutch–German late bilinguals in the Netherlands. One group comprises native speakers of Dutch and the other group comprises native speakers of German, and the two groups further differ in their degree of L2 immersion. The L1-German–L2-Dutch bilinguals ( N = 23) are exposed to their L2 at home and outside the home, and the L1-Dutch–L2-German bilinguals ( N = 18) are only exposed to their L2 at home. We tested L2 attainment by comparing the bilinguals’ L2 to the other bilinguals’ L1, and L1 attrition by comparing the bilinguals’ L1 to Dutch monolinguals ( N = 29) and German monolinguals ( N = 27). Our findings indicate that complete L2 immersion may be advantageous in L2 acquisition, but at the same time it may cause L1 phonetic attrition. We discuss how the results match the predictions made by Flege’s Speech Learning Model and explore how far bilinguals’ success in acquiring L2 VOT and maintaining L1 VOT depends on the immersion context, articulatory constraints and the risk of sounding foreign accented.

Ultimate attainment in late second language acquisition: Phonetic and grammatical challenges in advanced Dutch–English bilingualism

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658313505314 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 129-157 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Monika S. Schmid ◽

Steven Gilbers ◽

Amber Nota

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

First Language ◽

Onset Time ◽

Reference Population ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Verb Phrase Ellipsis ◽

Verb Phrase ◽

Ultimate Attainment

The present article provides an exploration of ultimate attainment in second language (L2) and its limitations. It is argued that the question of maturational constraints can best be investigated when the reference population is bilingual and exposed on a regular basis to varieties of their first language (L1) that show cross-linguistic influence. To this end, 20 advanced Dutch–English bilinguals are compared to 9 English native speakers immersed in a Dutch environment. All participants are teachers or students of English at a Dutch institution of higher education. The populations are shown to be at similar global proficiency levels. Two phonetic variables (voice onset time or VOT and vowel discrimination) and one grammatical variable (verb phrase ellipsis), which are assumed to present particular challenges to Dutch learners of English, are explored, and speakers are furthermore rated for their global nativeness. The findings show no differences between populations on VOT but some variance on the production of a vowel that has no correlate in Dutch (the English trap vowel). However, all but one of the L2ers are rated outside the range of the natives on perceived foreign accent. There are also differences between groups where acceptance of different sentence types with verb phrase ellipsis are concerned. We interpret these findings to indicate that there are areas of L2 knowledge and production that are persistently difficult to acquire even under circumstances that are highly favourable for L2 acquisition.

The effects of explicit pronunciation instruction on the production of second language Spanish voiceless stops

Instructed Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1558/isla.37279 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 81-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Pablo Camus

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Word Reading ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

First Language ◽

Onset Time ◽

Control Group ◽

Pronunciation Instruction ◽

L2 Spanish ◽

Teaching Pronunciation

The present study examines the effectiveness of second language explicit pronunciation instruction of adult second language (L2) learners of Spanish in a classroom setting. This study seeks to shed light on the effectiveness of teaching pronunciation while considering the level of instruction of first, second and third year students. Eighty-three learners of Spanish as an L2 were recruited to participate in a control (n = 45) or experimental (n = 38) group. From the beginning to the end of a twelve-week semester, participants in the experimental condition received instruction on typically difficult segments in L2-Spanish for first language (L1) English speakers. Pronunciation gains were measured acoustically by a word-reading task and the target structures were Spanish voiceless stops /p, t, k/. Results suggest that pronunciation instruction is beneficial to all voiceless stops. After a semester of instruction, the experimental group reduced their voice onset time (VOT) and reached native speakers' range, while no difference was observed in the control group. Additionally, instruction was beneficial at each curricular level, suggesting that pronunciation instruction should be part of the L2-Spanish curricular sequence at multiple levels. Results are discussed in terms of the theoretical, methodological and pedagogical implications of these findings and special emphasis is placed on the advantages of pronunciation instruction. A call is made for more teachers and practitioners to include pronunciation instruction in the L2-Spanish classroom.

Longitudinal Developments in Bilingual Second Language Acquisition and First Language Attrition of Speech: The Case of Arnold Schwarzenegger

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages6020061 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 61

Author(s):

Lisa Kornder ◽

Ineke Mennen

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

First Language ◽

Onset Time ◽

Speech Development ◽

Dynamic Interactions ◽

First Language Attrition ◽

Second Formant ◽

L1 And L2

The purpose of this investigation was to trace first (L1) and second language (L2) segmental speech development in the Austrian German–English late bilingual Arnold Schwarzenegger over a period of 40 years, which makes it the first study to examine a bilingual’s speech development over several decades in both their languages. To this end, acoustic measurements of voice onset time (VOT) durations of word-initial plosives (Study 1) and formant frequencies of the first and second formant of Austrian German and English monophthongs (Study 2) were conducted using speech samples collected from broadcast interviews. The results of Study 1 showed a merging of Schwarzenegger’s German and English voiceless plosives in his late productions as manifested in a significant lengthening of VOT duration in his German plosives, and a shortening of VOT duration in his English plosives, closer to L1 production norms. Similar findings were evidenced in Study 2, revealing that some of Schwarzenegger’s L1 and L2 vowel categories had moved closer together in the course of L2 immersion. These findings suggest that both a bilingual’s first and second language accent is likely to develop and reorganize over time due to dynamic interactions between the first and second language system.

Drifting towards Ambiguity: A Closer Look at Palatalisation in L2 Irish

Studia Celto-Slavica ◽

10.54586/mbvt2898 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 55-69

Author(s):

Marina Snesareva ◽

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

First Language ◽

The Other ◽

Good Knowledge ◽

Front Vowel ◽

Other Hand ◽

Everyday Communication ◽

At Home

This article focuses on palatalisation in the Irish spoken by Dublin-based bilinguals for whom English is their first language. All informants had a good knowledge of both Irish and English; however, Irish was their second language, used less frequently in everyday communication. Most Dubliners start learning Irish at school; only a few informants had the opportunity to speak it at home, but even then the language was not used outside class on a regular basis. The study showed that most deviations in the distribution of palatalised and non-palatalised consonants in the speech of Dublin bilinguals were of the palatalisation absence type. Such deviations were especially frequent next to back and mid-back vowels. On the other hand, a palatalised consonant was often pronounced instead of a non-palatalised one next to a front vowel. Previous research suggests that these tendencies also apply in weak positions (Snesareva 2014a; 2014b). Consequently, even though in traditional Irish dialects palatalisation is not position-bound, in the speech of Dublin bilinguals there is correlation between the palatalisation of a consonant and the quality of its neighbouring vowel. However, such consonant distribution was not encountered in all contexts: even those informants whose speech had deviations used palatalisation properly in some contexts. This means that position-bound use of palatalisation is still a tendency rather than an entrenched feature of Dublin Irish.

The Bottleneck Hypothesis in L2 acquisition: L1 Norwegian learners’ knowledge of syntax and morphology in L2 English

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658318825067 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 3-29

Author(s):

Isabel Nadine Jensen ◽

Roumyana Slabakova ◽

Marit Westergaard ◽

Björn Lundquist

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Functional Morphology ◽

Word Order ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Verb Second

The Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2008, 2013) proposes that acquiring properties of the functional morphology is the most challenging part of learning a second language. In the experiment presented here, the predictions of this hypothesis are tested in the second language (L2) English of Norwegian native speakers. Two constructions are investigated that do not match in English and Norwegian: One involving functional morphology, subject–verb (SV) agreement, which is obligatory in the L2 but non-existent in the first language (L1), and one involving syntax, verb-second (V2) word order, which is obligatory in the L1, but restricted to specific contexts in the L2. The results of an acceptability judgement task indicate that the participants struggled more with identifying ungrammatical SV agreement than ungrammatical word order. We conclude that the findings lend tentative support to the Bottleneck Hypothesis.

Constructing two phonological systems: A phonetic analysis of /p/, /t/, /k/ among early Spanish–English bilingual speakers

International Journal of Bilingualism ◽

10.1177/1367006916651983 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 51-68

Author(s):

Earl K. Brown ◽

Mary T. Copple

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

First Language ◽

Onset Time ◽

Center Of Gravity ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

Bilingual Speakers ◽

English Bilingual ◽

The Usa

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Many early Spanish-English bilingual speakers in the USA learn Spanish as their first language at home and English in school. This paper seeks to elucidate whether these speakers develop a separate phonological system for English and, if so, the role of primary and secondary cues in the development of the second language (L2) system. Design/methodology/approach: The phonetic realization of the voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/ is analyzed among three groups: early Spanish-English bilinguals; L1 English speakers who are late learners of Spanish; and L1 Spanish speakers who are late learners of English. The participants ( N = 15) engaged in a reading task and a conversation task in each language during a single recording session. Data and analysis: 1578 tokens of /p/, /t/, /k/ were extracted and analyzed using acoustic software. Voice onset time in milliseconds and center of gravity in Hertz were analyzed, and monofactorial and multifactorial analyses were performed to determine the role of linguistic background. Findings/conclusions: Evidence is found of two phonological systems among early bilingual speakers, with varying degrees of assimilation to the phonological systems of the native speakers of each language. Originality: We argue that early bilinguals construct their L2 system of /p/, /t/, /k/ in English based on the primary cue of voice onset time rather than the secondary cue of center of gravity, as they are accustomed to noticing differences in voice onset time in Spanish and because the center of gravity of /p/, /t/, /k/ in English is more variable than voice onset time, and therefore represents a more variable and less predictable cue for early bilinguals as they construct their L2 system. Significance/implications: This paper contributes to the literature on the construction of phonological systems and to research detailing the speech of early Spanish-English bilinguals.

Contributions of the study of Japanese as a second language to our general understanding of second language acquisition and the definition of second language acquisition research

Second language Research ◽

10.1191/0267658303sr215oa ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 76-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shigenori Wakabayashi

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

First Language ◽

The Other ◽

Linguistic Knowledge ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Definition Of

Japanese has figured frequently in second language acquisition (SLA) research, but more often than not it appears as the first language (L1) rather than the target. In this article, first I discuss the problems addressed and the insights obtained in these studies. I then consider two issues. One is what the field of SLA research should include. I suggest that it should include two categories, namely Core SLA Research, where second language (L2) linguistic knowledge is investigated, and Broad SLA research, where researchers study factors that influence the development of L2 knowledge. The other issue is what we can expect in Core SLA research concerning the L2 acquisition of Japanese. This article illustrates how studies of the L2 acquisition of Japanese can contribute to our understanding of SLA.

Effects of the grammatical representation of number on cognition in bilinguals

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728905002397 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 89-96 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

PANOS ATHANASOPOULOS

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

First Language ◽

The Other ◽

Current Paper ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Number Marking ◽

Japanese Speakers ◽

Language And Cognition ◽

Grammatical Number ◽

The Relationship

Research investigating the relationship between language and cognition (Lucy, 1992b) shows that speakers of languages with grammatical number marking (e.g. English) judge differences in the number of countable objects as more significant than differences in the number or amount of non-countable substances. On the other hand, speakers of languages which lack grammatical number marking (e.g. Yucatec) show no such preference. The current paper extends Lucy's (1992b) investigation, comparing monolingual English and Japanese speakers with Japanese speakers of English as a second language (L2). Like Yucatec, Japanese is a non-plural-marking language. Results show that intermediate L2 speakers behave similarly to the Japanese monolinguals while advanced L2 speakers behave similarly to the English monolinguals. The results (a) provide support for the claim that grammatical representation may influence cognition in specific ways and (b) suggest that L2 acquisition may alter cognitive dispositions established by a first language (L1).

L2 Acquisition of Spanish VOT by English-Speaking Immigrants in Spain

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics ◽

10.1515/shll-2020-2034 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 361-389 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Timothy L. Face ◽

Mandy R. Menke

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

L2 Phonology ◽

Long Time ◽

English Speaking ◽

Considerable Individual Variation

AbstractPrevious studies of native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language (L2) document compromise voice onset time (VOT) values; however, the focus has been predominantly on voiceless stops and has almost exclusively investigated beginning and intermediate learners. This study fills a gap in the literature by considering the acquisition of VOT in both voiceless and voiced Spanish stops by long-time native English-speaking residents of Spain. Overall, the results show that the L2 speakers’ VOT values differ from those of native speakers across all stop consonants; yet L2 speakers’ productions of voiceless, as opposed to voiced, stops more closely approximate those of native speakers. Considerable individual variation is observed as no speaker achieves native-like performance overall, and no consonant is mastered by more than half of the speakers. Results are considered in light of what they contribute to our understanding of ultimate attainment of Spanish VOT, specifically, and L2 phonology more generally.

Optionality in non-native grammars: L2 acquisition of German constructions with absent expletives

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728905002245 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 177-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

ALDONA SOPATA

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

Production Task ◽

Null Subjects ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Written Production ◽

Grammaticality Judgment ◽

L2 Learners ◽

High Level

This paper investigates the knowledge of constructions with absent expletives by advanced and high-proficiency non-native speakers of German whose first language is Polish. German grammar is known to license null subjects due to the strength of AGRP but not to identify them. Therefore only expletive subjects can be absent in German, except for Topic-drop and, crucially, the expletive subjects have to be absent in certain cases due to the Projection Principle. The knowledge of this phenomenon by second language (L2) learners has been investigated by two methods, elicited written production task and grammaticality judgment tests. High-level non-native speakers of German differ significantly from native speakers in both types of tasks. The differences are clearly not the result of transfer. The results reported here reveal permanent optionality in L2 grammars suggesting a deficit in the grammatical representations of L2 learners.