A matched-guise study on L2, heritage, and native Spanish speakers’ attitudes to Spanish in the State of Washington

The recent hypothesis that L1 attrition affects the ability to process interface structures but not knowledge representations (Sorace, 2011) is tested by investigating the effects of recent L1 re-exposure on antecedent preferences for Spanish pronominal subjects, using offline judgements and online eye-tracking measures. Participants included a group of native Spanish speakers experiencing L1 attrition (‘attriters’), a second group of attriters exposed exclusively to Spanish before they were tested (‘re-exposed’), and a control group of Spanish monolinguals. The judgement data shows no significant differences between the groups. Moreover, the monolingual and re-exposed groups are not significantly different from each other in the eye-tracking data. The results of this novel manipulation indicate that attrition effects decrease due to L1 re-exposure, and that bilinguals are sensitive to input changes. Taken together, the findings suggest that attrition affects online sensitivity with interface structures rather than causing a permanent change in speakers’ L1 knowledge representations.

Download Full-text

Identity Markers and L2 Pronunciation

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s027226310000694x ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 33-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Jane Zuengler

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

American English ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

American Identity ◽

Native Spanish Speakers ◽

Sociolinguistic Variation ◽

English Pronunciation ◽

Identity Markers ◽

Social Markers ◽

Social Marking

This is a report of a study of social marking in second language pronunciation. In particular, it tested out Trudgill's (1981) suggestion that sounds that are most likely to undergo sociolinguistic variation, that is, that may become social markers, are those that Labov (1972a, 1972b), calls stereotypes. This study sought to determine whether there were certain aspects of English pronunciation that native Spanish speakers would, at some level of awareness, associate with American English/American identity. The speakers were asked to perform several tasks, including a mimic of an American speaking Spanish with an American accent (following Flege & Hammond, 1982). Among the results, speakers displayed a tacit awareness of English-Spanish sound distinctions (in particular, allophonic differences) in performing the mimic (supporting Flege & Hammond, 1982). Additionally, some of the alterations they were very conscious of held as stereotypes of American English. Support was found for Trudgill's (1981) suggestion.

Download Full-text

Shrinking Your Deictic System: How Far Can You Go?

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.575497 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Mila Vulchanova ◽

Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes ◽

Jacqueline Collier ◽

Valentin Vulchanov

Keyword(s):

First Language ◽

Group Living ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

Control Group ◽

Language Attrition ◽

Native Spanish Speakers ◽

Language Competence ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Language Exposure ◽

Open Question

Languages around the world differ in terms of the number of adnominal and pronominal demonstratives they require, as well as the factors that impact on their felicitous use. Given this cross-linguistic variation in deictic demonstrative terms, and the features that determine their felicitous use, an open question is how this is accommodated within bilingual cognition and language. In particular, we were interested in the extent to which bilingual language exposure and practice might alter the way in which a bilingual is using deictic demonstratives in their first language. Recent research on language attrition suggests that L2 learning selectively affects aspects of the native language, with some domains of language competence being more vulnerable than others. If demonstratives are basic, and acquired relatively early, they should be less susceptible to change and attrition. This was the hypothesis we went on to test in the current study. We tested two groups of native Spanish speakers, a control group living in Spain and an experimental group living in Norway using the (Spatial) Memory game paradigm. Contra to our expectations, the results indicate a significant difference between the two groups in use of deictic terms, indicative of a change in the preferred number of terms used. This suggests that deictic referential systems may change over time under pressure from bilingual language exposure.

Download Full-text

Production and perception of English stops by native Spanish speakers

Journal of Phonetics ◽

10.1016/s0095-4470(19)30538-8 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 67-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 172

Author(s):

James Emil Flege ◽

Wieke Eefting

Keyword(s):

Spanish Speakers ◽

Native Spanish Speakers

Download Full-text

The Acquisition of the English Auxiliary by Native Spanish Speakers

TESOL Quarterly ◽

10.2307/3585626 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 421 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Herlinda Cancino ◽

Ellen J. Rosansky ◽

John H. Schumann

Keyword(s):

Spanish Speakers ◽

Native Spanish Speakers

Download Full-text

Developing and validating a methodology for crowdsourcing L2 speech ratings in Amazon Mechanical Turk

Journal of Second Language Pronunciation ◽

10.1075/jslp.18016.nag ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 294-323 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Charles Nagle

Keyword(s):

Interrater Reliability ◽

Intraclass Correlation ◽

Correlation Coefficients ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

Mechanical Turk ◽

Amazon Mechanical Turk ◽

Native Spanish Speakers ◽

Intraclass Correlation Coefficients ◽

Future Data ◽

Rater Severity

Abstract Researchers have increasingly turned to Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) to crowdsource speech data, predominantly in English. Although AMT and similar platforms are well positioned to enhance the state of the art in L2 research, it is unclear if crowdsourced L2 speech ratings are reliable, particularly in languages other than English. The present study describes the development and deployment of an AMT task to crowdsource comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness ratings for L2 Spanish speech samples. Fifty-four AMT workers who were native Spanish speakers from 11 countries participated in the ratings. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to estimate group-level interrater reliability, and Rasch analyses were undertaken to examine individual differences in rater severity and fit. Excellent reliability was observed for the comprehensibility and fluency ratings, but indices were slightly lower for accentedness, leading to recommendations to improve the task for future data collection.

Download Full-text

Relations between native Spanish speakers’ perception and production of English vowels

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4785386 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 116 (4) ◽

pp. 2604-2604

Author(s):

Kimberly A. Lydtin ◽

Fredericka Bell‐Berti ◽

Peggy Jacobson ◽

José Centeno

Keyword(s):

Spanish Speakers ◽

Native Spanish Speakers ◽

English Vowels

Download Full-text

TOWARD A DYNAMIC VIEW OF SECOND LANGUAGE COMPREHENSIBILITY

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263119000044 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (04) ◽

pp. 647-672 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Charles Nagle ◽

Pavel Trofimovich ◽

Annie Bergeron

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

Native Spanish Speakers ◽

Stimulated Recall ◽

Dynamic View ◽

Audio Clip ◽

Global Ratings ◽

University Level ◽

L2 Spanish ◽

Listening Task

AbstractThis study took a dynamic approach to second language (L2) comprehensibility, examining how listeners construct comprehensibility profiles for L2 Spanish speakers during the listening task and what features enhance or diminish comprehensibility. Listeners were 24 native Spanish speakers who evaluated 2–5 minute audio clips recorded by three university-level L2 Spanish speakers responding to two prompts. Listeners rated comprehensibility dynamically, using Idiodynamic Software to upgrade or downgrade comprehensibility over the course of the listening task. Dynamic ratings for one audio clip were video-captured for stimulated recall, and listeners were interviewed to understand which aspects of L2 speech were associated with enhanced versus diminished comprehensibility. Results indicated that clips that were downgraded more often received lower global ratings but upgrading was not associated with higher ratings. Certain problematic features and individual episodes caused listeners’ impressions to converge, though substantial individual variation among listeners was evident.

Download Full-text