Phonotactic Probabilities and Sub-syllabic Segmentation in Language Learning

• Authors: Eva Maria Luef , Pia Resnik

Abstracts

EN

High phonotactic probabilities are known to exert a facilitative effect on word learning in children and adults in their first language. The present study was designed to investigate the role of phonotactic probabilities when learning a foreign language. Focusing on Austrian and Korean learners of English, we investigated two hypotheses related to phonotactic frequency effects: (1) High-frequency segments have more deeply entrenched phonetic representations, with more automatized pronunciation patterns, rendering phonetic learning of homophonous segments more difficult; (2) High-frequency segments are associated with higher phonetic variability in the first language, which can facilitate phonetic learning in a foreign language. Additionally, the locus of phoneme/ bigram frequency effects was analyzed in relation to left-branching and right-branching syllable structure in German and Korean. We found that proximity to English voice-onset time is correlated with phoneme and bigram frequencies in the first language, but results varied by learner group. Sub-syllabic segmentation of the first language was also shown to be an influential factor. Our study is grounded in research on frequency effects and combines its central premise with phonetic learning in a foreign language. The results show a tight relationship between first language statistical probabilities and phonetic learning in a foreign language.

Keywords

EN

Austrian German; English as a Foreign Language (EFL); frequency distribution; Korean; sub-syllabic segmentation

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Śląski
• Journal: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-31

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Eva Maria Luef

• Charles University in Prague

• https://orcid.org/0000000223622422

author

Pia Resnik

• University College of Teacher Education Vienna/Krems

• https://orcid.org/0000000309489546

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Identifiers

DOI

10.31261/TAPSLA.12468

Biblioteka Nauki

22446717