Proposal-paper

XXXIV Aedean Conference (Almería 2010)

PANEL: PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY (Coordinator: Joan Carles Mora)

SESSION 1

Phonetic Attainment in the L2 or L3 (English) in a Natural Setting
Arguiñe González García (University Pais Vasco)

SESSION 2

Examining Oral Fluency in Catalan/Spanish Learners of English
Natalia Fullana Rivera (University of Barcelona)

Listeners’ Perception of Accentedness and Oral Fluency in L2 English
Joan C. Mora (University of Barcelona)

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
ABSTRACTS

Phonetic Attainment in the L2 or L3 (English) in a Natural Setting
Arguiñe González García (University Pais Vasco)

One of the most permanent and noticeable features in the acquisition of second languages (L2s) or foreign languages (FLs) is the non-native pronunciation, which can be ascribed, to a large extent, to the influence of the native languages (NLs) (Best, 1995; Flege, 1995; Kuhl, 1993). The attainment of a native accent has proved extremely difficult and rare (Cenoz & García Lecumberri, 1999) even in natural settings. In the present study, we investigate the phonetic acquisition of an L2 or L3 in a natural setting in speakers with, on the one hand, one NL (Spanish) and one L2 (English) and, on the other, speakers with 2 NLs (Spanish and Basque) and one L3 (English). In the present study, we control for the variables age of arrival (AOA) and degree of activation of the NL(s) and the target language (English).
Our first hypothesis is that the earlier their AOA in the host country, the better their pronunciation in the target language (TL) (Flege, 1991; Flege, et al 1995a, Flege et al., 1995b).we recruited 13 first generation immigrants in Reno, NV (USA). They were interviewed in their different languages and filled in a questionnaire with questions related to biographical information, attitudes and languages use. We recruited 7 native speakers of American English who rated the pronunciation of each of the speakers in English in terms of degree of foreign accent (DFA).Two out of the thirteen first generation Spanish/Basque immigrants passed for native speakers of the target language (English). These two immigrants arrived in the host country before the offset of the so-called critical period for phonology which is estimated at the age of 6 (Long, 2005), namely, at the age of 2 and at the age of 6. As for their degree of activation of the languages, all of them reported a frequent use of English, but none of them reported a frequent use only of the target language. That is, all of them reported a frequent use of their other language(s) (Spanish, in the case of the two native speakers of Spanish with English as L2 and either Basque or Spanish or both in the case of those participants with two NLs and one L3). At this point, we cannot draw firm conclusions about the influence of the frequency of use of the languages in the phonetic attainment in the TL. Our data lend support to the critical period hypothesis; those first generation immigrants whose AOA was before the offset of the CP passed for native speakers of the TL. Our data also lend support to the supposed advantage of an early age, in the sense that, in the case of those participants whose AOA in the host country was after the offset of the CP, the tendency is that the earlier they arrived in the host country, the better their accent in the TL.

Speech Production in a Semi-immersion Setting: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
Lucrecia Rallo Fabra and Maria Juan Garau (University of Illes Balears)

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a relatively recent trend in European mainstream education in which a content subject is taught through the medium of a second or foreign language. At present there is evidence that CLIL boosts learners’ linguistic performance in various domains (Dalton-Puffer and Nikula 2006). Further, recent research has examined the effectiveness of various CLIL experiences in Spain from an empirical perspective. Comparison of the outcomes with peers from traditional formal instruction classrooms has shown a clear advantage of CLIL learners over their non-CLIL peers measured in terms of standarized tests (Lorenzo, Casal and Moore 2009) or pronunciation assessment by native English listeners (Gallardo del Puerto, Gómez-Lacabex and García-Lecumberri 2009). The data presented here are part of a longitudinal research in progress that investigates the short- and mid-term effects of the CLIL programme in the Balearic Islands. Two groups of learners varying in amount and nature of formal FL instruction and a group of native English were recorded eliciting a controlled speaking task at two data collection times. Four expert native English judges assessed five short excerpts in terms of comprehensibility (“easy”, “mid” or “difficult” to understand) and immediately afterwards they rated the speech samples for foreign accent on a 1-to-5 scale. As expected, the read speech samples by the CLIL learners were judged to be more intelligible and less accented than the samples by their peers in conventional formal instruction (FI), but both groups differed significantly from the native English group. No significant short-term improvement in either comprehensibility or foreign accent was found after one year of CLIL instruction, suggesting that gains in learners’ pronunciation in a content-based learning context are more likely to appear in the long run. Finally, we concluded that orthographic interference might have triggered many pronunciation errors, thus affecting learners’ mental representations of their L2 phonology.
Keywords: comprehensibility, foreign accent, formal instruction, CLIL

Examining Oral Fluency in Catalan/Spanish Learners of English
Natalia Fullana Rivera (University of Barcelona)

This study explored oral fluency in Catalan/Spanish learners of English who had been mainly exposed to the target language in a formal learning context. Excerpts from a picture narrative task were analyzed for temporal measures of fluency. Results of low speech rate and pruned speech rate demonstrated a low level of fluency in English among the Catalan/Spanish bilinguals and evidenced a high degree of variability among learners. Moreover, exposure to English was not a determining factor in attaining a more native-like degree of fluency in the FL, though fluency was slightly better for those individuals who had stayed in an English-speaking environment for three months or more.
Keywords: fluency, L2 experience, Catalan/Spanish speakers, English as a foreign language.

Listeners’ Perception of Accentedness and Oral Fluency in L2 English
Joan C. Mora (University of Barcelona)

The present study investigates the role of listener’s experience and the relationship between degree of foreign accent and spoken fluency in the perception of non-native speech. Speech samples from 34 bilingual Catalan/Spanish advanced EFL learners were analysed for pronunciation accuracy and temporal spoken fluency measures. The results of these pronunciation accuracy and oral fluency measurements were then compared to the foreign accent and oral fluency ratings produced by five groups of “expert” raters differing in degree of experience with Catalan/Spanish-accented English. The results revealed that experienced listeners rated the speech samples as significantly less fluent and more heavily accented than inexperienced listeners. L1-Spanish/Catalan listeners were found to rate the speech samples as less fluent and more heavily accented than L1 English listeners. The implications of these results for L2 oral production assessment are discussed.