Discrimination of Arabic contrats by American learners

• Authors: Mahmoud S. Al Mahmoud
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article reports on second language perception of non-native contrasts. The study specifically tests the perceptual assimilation model (PAM) by examining American learners’ ability to discriminate Arabic contrasts. Twenty two native American speakers enrolled in a university level Arabic language program took part in a forced choice AXB discrimination task. Results of the study provide partial evidence for PAM. Only two-category contrasts followed straightforwardly from PAM; discrimination results of category-goodness difference and both uncategorizable contrasts yielded partial support, while results of uncategorized versus categorized contrast discrimination provided counter-evidence to PAM.

Keywords

EN

discrimination of sound contrast; Arabic consonant contrasts; perceptual assimilation model

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 261-292

Dates

cover

2013-06

Contributors

author

Mahmoud S. Al Mahmoud

• Imam University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Identifiers

ISSN

2083-5205

DOI

10.14746/ssllt.2013.3.2.6