ERIC Number: EJ1106600
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Jul
Pages: 30
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0267-6583
EISSN: N/A
Word Boundaries in L2 Speech: Evidence from Polish Learners of English
Schwartz, Geoffrey
Second Language Research, v32 n3 p397-426 Jul 2016
Acoustic and perceptual studies investgate B2-level Polish learners' acquisition of second language (L2) English word-boundaries involving word-initial vowels. In production, participants were less likely to produce glottalization of phrase-medial initial vowels in L2 English than in first language (L1) Polish. Perception studies employing word monitoring and word counting tasks found that glottalization of word-initial vowels had a negligible impact on the processing of L2 word boundaries. Taken together, these experiments suggest that B2-level learners are relatively successful in acquiring word-boundary linking processes that are for the most part absent from L1 Polish, and challenge the notion of an L2 "Word Integrity" constraint. The cross-language interactions observed in these experiments are compatible with the claim that the realization of word-initial vowels is governed by a representational parameter, which may be derived in the Onset Prominence framework.
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Acoustics, Auditory Perception, English (Second Language), Native Language, Polish, Vowels, Pronunciation, Language Processing, Linguistic Theory, College Students, Foreign Countries, Predictor Variables, Statistical Analysis, Reaction Time, Auditory Stimuli, Transfer of Training, Speech Communication
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Poland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A