Lingua Francasage, Exposure to English and the Pronunciation of /T/ and /D/ by Spanish Speakers in Second Language Acquisition
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Age, Exposure to English and the Pronunciation of /t/ and /d/ by Spanish Speakers in Second Language Acquisition
Mauricio Carrillo
October 6, 2010
INTRODUCTION:
Phonology is without a doubt the aspect of second language learning that most visibly reveals the influence of the speaker’s native language (Fromkin et al, 2006). Phonological attainment may be tied to different factors including psycho-motor constraints, e.g. as articulatory habits from L1 become entrenched. According to Moyer (2004), phonology is the most prominent factor in determining comprehensibility, native-nes, fluency, and belonging which are significantly tied to contact with native speakers, motivation, duration of formal instruction, and length of residence, in addition to age of exposure.
The acquisition of L2 English consonants and consonant clusters has been a major area of study in L2 phonology as English has a relatively complex phonological system, with a wide range of consonants that could fit syllable-initial (onset) and syllable-final (coda) position, as well as allowing other consonants to combine in the onset or coda to form clusters, clusters of up to three or four consonants, while other languages, such as Spanish, have relatively simpler types of consonants in onsets and codas.
Learning the English phonology has posed a real challenge for some native Spanish speakers. Although the following phonemes /p/, /b/, /f/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /s/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/, /j/, /w/, and /dʒ/ have near equivalents in both Spanish and English and are articulated without serious problem, there are still some complications (Swan and Smith, 1991); for example, in Spanish, the initial voiceless plosive /t/ is not aspirated as in English, so it often sounds like /d/ to native English listeners, e.g., the word “ten” might sound like “den”. The same phenomenon occurs with the word-final voiced plosive /d/; some native Spanish speakers tend to use /t/ for final /d/, so the question;...
Mauricio Carrillo
October 6, 2010
INTRODUCTION:
Phonology is without a doubt the aspect of second language learning that most visibly reveals the influence of the speaker’s native language (Fromkin et al, 2006). Phonological attainment may be tied to different factors including psycho-motor constraints, e.g. as articulatory habits from L1 become entrenched. According to Moyer (2004), phonology is the most prominent factor in determining comprehensibility, native-nes, fluency, and belonging which are significantly tied to contact with native speakers, motivation, duration of formal instruction, and length of residence, in addition to age of exposure.
The acquisition of L2 English consonants and consonant clusters has been a major area of study in L2 phonology as English has a relatively complex phonological system, with a wide range of consonants that could fit syllable-initial (onset) and syllable-final (coda) position, as well as allowing other consonants to combine in the onset or coda to form clusters, clusters of up to three or four consonants, while other languages, such as Spanish, have relatively simpler types of consonants in onsets and codas.
Learning the English phonology has posed a real challenge for some native Spanish speakers. Although the following phonemes /p/, /b/, /f/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /s/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/, /j/, /w/, and /dʒ/ have near equivalents in both Spanish and English and are articulated without serious problem, there are still some complications (Swan and Smith, 1991); for example, in Spanish, the initial voiceless plosive /t/ is not aspirated as in English, so it often sounds like /d/ to native English listeners, e.g., the word “ten” might sound like “den”. The same phenomenon occurs with the word-final voiced plosive /d/; some native Spanish speakers tend to use /t/ for final /d/, so the question;...