Esther de Leeuw

The effects of contact on native language pronunciation in an L2 migrant setting

The primary aim of this study was to determine whether native speakers of German living in either Canada or the Netherlands are perceived to have a foreign accent in their native German speech. German monolingual listeners (n = 19) assessed global foreign accent of 34 L1 German speakers in Anglophone Canada, 23 L1 German speakers in the Dutch Netherlands, and five German monolingual controls in Germany. The experimental subjects had moved to either Canada or the Netherlands at an average age of 27 years and had resided in their country of choice for an average of 37 years. The results revealed that the German listeners were more likely to perceive a global foreign accent in the German speech of the consecutive bilinguals in Anglophone Canada and the Dutch Netherlands than in the speech of the control group and that nine immigrants to Canada and five immigrants to the Netherlands were clearly perceived to be non-native speakers of German. Further analysis revealed that quality and quantity of contact with the native German language had a more significant effect on predicting global foreign accent in native speech than age of arrival or length of residence. Two types of contact were differentiated: (i) C−M represented communicative settings in which little code-mixing between the L1 and L2 was expected to occur, and (ii) C+M represented communicative settings in which code-mixing was expected to be more likely. The variable C−M had a significant impact on predicting foreign accent in native speech, whereas the variable C+M did not. The results suggest that contact with the L1 through communicative settings in which code-mixing is inhibited is especially conducive to maintaining the stability of native language pronunciation in consecutive bilinguals living in a migrant context.

Hesitation Markers in English, German, and Dutch

This study reports on a number of highly significant differences found between English, German, and Dutch hesitation markers. English and German native speakers used significantly more vocalic-nasal hesitation markers than Dutch native speakers, who used predominantly vocalic hesitation markers. English hesitation markers occurred most frequently when preceded by silence and followed by a lexical item, or when surrounded by silence. German and Dutch hesitation markers occurred most frequently surrounded by lexical items. In Dutch, vocalic-nasal hesitation markers dominated only when surrounded by silence. Vocalic-nasal hesitation markers dominated in all positions in English and German, although in the former language this was more salient than in the latter. Nasal hesitation markers were used significantly more frequently in German than in English or Dutch. In addition to overall language trends, speaker-specific differences, especially within German and Dutch, were observed. These results raise questions in terms of the symptom versus signal hypotheses regarding the function of hesitation markers.* 1. The Function of Hesitation Markers.

Measuring language-specific phonetic settings

While it is well known that languages have different phonemes and phonologies, there is growing interest in the idea that languages may also differ in their ‘phonetic setting’. The term ‘phonetic setting’ refers to a tendency to make the vocal apparatus employ a language-specific habitual configuration. For example, languages may differ in their degree of lip-rounding, tension of the lips and tongue, jaw position, phonation types, pitch range and register. Such phonetic specifications may be particularly difficult for second language (L2) learners to acquire, yet be easily perceivable by first language (L1) listeners as inappropriate. Techniques that are able to capture whether and how an L2 learner’s pronunciation proficiency in their two languages relates to the respective phonetic settings in each language should prove useful for second language research. This article gives an overview of a selection of techniques that can be used to investigate phonetic settings at the articulatory level, such as flesh-point tracking, ultrasound tongue imaging and electropalatography (EPG), as well as a selection of acoustic measures such as measures of pitch range, long-term average spectra and formants.

Singing a different tune in your native language: first language attrition of prosody.

First language attrition refers to the changes which a first language (L1) undergoes when a second language (L2) is acquired in a context in which L1 use is reduced (Cook, 2003; Köpke, 2004). To date, some studies have focused on complete loss of an L1, for example in the case of children whose contact with their initial language ceased after adoption (Pallier et al., 2003; Ventureyra, Pallier, & Yoo, 2004). Others have investigated more subtle cases in which changes to the L1 occur, although intelligibility remains largely, or completely, unaffected (de Leeuw, Schmid, & Mennen, 2007; Flege, 1987; Flege & Eefting, 1987; Major, 1992; Mennen, 2004). The study at hand belongs to the latter category, comprising a fine phonetic analysis of prosody in 10 late consecutive German–English bilinguals. In general, the results indicate L1 attrition in the intonational alignment of the prenuclear rise. However, interpersonal variation was also evidenced: two bilinguals performed clearly within the English monolingual norm in their German while one bilingual evidenced no L1 attrition. Intrapersonal variation occurred in the form of the start of the prenuclear rise appearing to undergo more L1 attrition than the end. The results are discussed in relation to previous studies suggesting that L1 attrition is less likely to occur in late consecutive bilinguals than in early consecutive bilinguals and, more generally, with regard to transfer and interference.

Dynamic systems, maturational constraints and L1 phonetic attrition

The present study comprises a phonetic analysis of the lateral phoneme /l/ in the first (L1) and second language (L2) of 10 late German–English bilinguals. The primary objective of the study was to compare the predictive power of dynamic systems theory with that of maturational constraints through a phonetic investigation of L1 attrition in the lateral phoneme /l/ of the late bilinguals. The results revealed L1 attrition in the lateral phoneme /l/, as well as a high degree of interpersonal and intrapersonal variation. These patterns are discussed in relation to dynamic systems theory and maturational constraints. Moreover, the degree of permanency of L1 attrition is discussed in relation to methodological considerations in studies on L1 attrition. It is proposed that maturational constraints are insufficient in explaining the results and that bilingual language development can be more adequately explained through dynamic systems theory, which explicitly incorporates a multitude of predictor variables across the lifespan, in addition to age constraints.

FREQUENT L2 LANGUAGE USE ENHANCES EXECUTIVE CONTROL IN BILINGUALS

Seminal research which indicates that bilingualism leads to enhanced executive control (Bialystok, Craik, Green & Gollan, 2009; Bialystok, Craik & Luk, 2012) has recently been challenged (de Bruin, Treccani & Della Sala, 2014; Hilchey & Klein, 2011; Paap & Greenberg, 2013). We suggest that this discrepancy in findings is attributable to differences between bilinguals. Although the present results showed no significant differences in executive control between the monolinguals and bilinguals, those bilinguals who used their L2 more frequently in their daily lives were significantly more likely to evidence enhanced executive control over those who rarely used their L2.