Foreign Language Learners Acquire L2 Phonetic Detail: Goose and Foot Fronting in Non-Native English

• Authors: Šárka Šimáčková , Václav Jonáš Podlipský
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Whether late learners discern fine phonetic detail in second-language (L2) input, form new phonetic categories, and realize them accurately remains a relevant question in L2 phonology, especially for foreign-language (FL) learning characterized by limited exposure to interactional native input. Our study focuses on advanced Czech learners’ production of the L2 English vowels GOOSE and FOOT. While English /u/ and /ʊ/ have been undergoing fronting, their Czech equivalents, /uː/ and /u/, are fully back. We show that although the spectral differentiation of /u/-/ʊ/ is smaller in the learners’ than in native speech, the vowels being contrasted primarily in length, even FL learners can shift their L2 sound categories towards native-like targets, or in this case, produce English /u/-/ʊ/ as fronted.

Keywords

EN

back-vowel fronting; fine phonetic detail; FOOT vowel; foreign language learning; GOOSE vowel; second language phonology

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Research in Language
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 385-403

Dates

published

2017-12-30

Contributors

author

Šárka Šimáčková

• Palacký University Olomouc

author

Václav Jonáš Podlipský

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/rela-2017-0022