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Complex Patterns in L1-to-L2 Phonetic Transfer: The Acquisition of English Plosive and Affricate Fake Geminates and Non-Homorganic Clusters by Polish Learners

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Porzuczek A., Rojczyk A.

Research in Language

2021

vol. 19

issue 1

1-13

This paper analyses the way that Polish learners of English articulate plosive and affricate consonants preceding another obstruent occlusive in both L1 and L2. Considering that English allows unreleased plosives before any stop, that is in a wider range of contexts than Polish, a Polish learner may find it confusing that it is regarded unacceptable to block the affricate release before another (in English always homorganic) affricate. In Polish the first of two homorganic affricates is often reduced to the occlusion phase, while unreleased plosives appear very rarely in non-homorganic contexts. This apparent paradox in the treatment of affricate and plosive consonant clusters may lead to complicated transfer patterns, which we examine by observing the release suppression tendencies in Polish and English phrases and sentences read by phonetically trained and untrained Polish learners of English. The results indicate strong negative transfer tendencies and suggest a connection between gemination patterns and unreleased occlusive distribution in a language.

Teaching the pronunciation of sentence final and word boundary stops to French learners of English: distracted imitation versus audio-visual explanations

75%

Amand M., Touhami Z.

Research in Language

2016

vol. 14

issue 4

377-388

Studies on stop unrelease in second language acquisition have hitherto focused on the productions of Slavic learners of English (Šimačkova & Podlipsky, 2015) and experiments on Polish learners of English; the latter show the tendency to release stops on a more regular basis depending on the type of stop combinations (Rojczyk et al. 2013). In the present study, we aim to test the efficiency of audio-visual explanations as opposed to distracted imitation in pronunciation teaching amongst French learners of English. While unreleased stops are rather frequent in French and English - especially in plosives clusters (Byrd, 1993; Davidson, 2010), unreleased plosives in final positions are less common in French (Van Dommelen, 1983). During phase 1 of the experiment, three groups of 12 native French learners of English (level A1/A2, B1/B2 and C1/C2) were asked to read idiomatic expressions containing both homogeneous and heterogeneous sequences of voiceless stops straddled between words, namely, in sequences like “that cat” [dat˺ kat˺], and stops at the end of sentences like “I told him to speak” [tə spiːk˺]. In the second phase of the experiment, one half in each group was given a different task. The first group heard recorded versions of phase 1 sentences and before reading them out loud, counted up to five in their L1. Stimuli for imitation contained no release in the contexts under scrutiny. The other half had to watch a video explaining the phenomenon of unreleased stops with a production of phase-two expressions propped up by hand gestures. They were then asked to re-read the sentences given in phase 1. Based on these results the current study makes recommendations about what working environment should be prioritized in pronunciation teaching both in class and online (Kroger et al. 2010), and suggests ways to assess students and visually keep track of their progress.

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2 Research in Language

1 Amand M.

1 Porzuczek A.

1 Rojczyk A.

1 Touhami Z.

1 2021

1 2016

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Complex Patterns in L1-to-L2 Phonetic Transfer: The Acquisition of English Plosive and Affricate Fake Geminates and Non-Homorganic Clusters by Polish Learners

Teaching the pronunciation of sentence final and word boundary stops to French learners of English: distracted imitation versus audio-visual explanations