Current Issues in Second Language Phonology

1. Current Issues in Second Language Phonology John Archibald LESLLA 2009, Banff CANADA

2. Current Issues in Second Language Phonology (and a bunch of other stuff)

3. Overview • Some basic facts about language. • Benefits of bilingualism. • Second language phonology. • Age effects. • Special populations.

4. Who am I? • A linguist with an interest in the study of learning second (or other) languages. • Someone with a past life as an ESL teacher at the credit and non-credit level. • Who am I not? • Someone who has a lot of experience with the population in question for this conference

5. Basic Facts About Language • How many languages are there? Close to 7,000. • There are no primitive languages; understudied languages may have surprising properties: • Inalienable possession • Evidentiality • All languages have a grammar; share basic properties

6. Even the native speakers may feel that their language is somehow “inferior” • Remember that prestige judgments are social not linguistic • Double negatives: Old English vs Modern English; urban dialects • We have ample evidence that even if the speakers are nervous about the status of their L1 that it will be a robust natural language

7. Most languages in the world don’t have writing systems • So, writing systems are not essential components of human languages • But they have decided socio-economic implications in many societies

8. What About Multilingualism?

9. A Multilingual Planet • Bilingualism and multilingualism is the norm on this planet • Monolingualism is the exception

10. Benefits of Bilingualism • What effects does learning a second language have? • It has both linguistic and non-linguistic benefits.

11. Increased Syntactic Complexity • We know that exposure to an L2 can enhance the complexity of syntax used in producing the first language. Studies have shown that the sophistication of language actually increases when there is knowledge of a second language. • Not only does knowledge of another language not harm your first language, it can actually enhance it.

12. Enhanced Narrative Strategies • We know that exposure to a second language can enhance language use skills (things like narrative strategies, both reading and writing literacy skills in the L1, and vocabulary scores).

13. Metalinguistic Awareness • We know that bilinguals have greater meta-linguistic awareness – which leads to better performance in tasks when we need to pay attention to structure (e.g. writing), and also to increased sensitivity to the needs of the listener

14. General Cognition • We know that bilinguals have cognitive advantages as demonstrated in scores on tests of analogical reasoning and visual-spatial skills.

15. Room For Everyone • We know that being taught in one language doesn’t lead to a reduced capacity in the other language. In fact, maintaining bilingual proficiency (rather than becoming monolingual in the socially dominant language) can actually benefit school performance. • The goal is not to become a monolingual English speaker.

16. Math • Grade 3 students were tested and it was found that students who had studied a foreign language had significantly higher scores on the mathematics subtest of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills than did students who did not take a foreign language.

17. What is Phonology? • More than pronunciation • It’s about a system of knowledge; mental representation • It’s about what you know (not just what you can do)

18. Segments • Consonants and vowels • New languages may have new contrasts

19. Consonants • Learning English [θ] (as in ‘think’) • Learning the difference between the ‘l’ in “leaf” and the ‘l’ in “fall” • L1 phonology, universal patterns, and L2 phonetics all influence the acquisition of L2 sounds

20. Vowels • Imagine learning the French [ü] • English speakers tend to substitute an [u] sound • Portuguese speakers tend to substitute an [i] sound • L1 properties may explain this

21. Syllables • Syllables have internal structure: • The onset consonant comes before the vowel • The coda consonant comes after the vowel • E.g., “cat”

22. Syllables • Consonant clusters? • Yes: English • No: KoreanYes ++: Swedish, Polish • Coda consonants? • Lots: English • Some: Japanese • None: Hawaiian

23. Repair Strategies • Epenthesis versus deletion as repair strategies • Epenthesis: “went” -> “wenti” • Deletion “went” -> “wen”

24. Repair Strategies • Epenthesis (over deletion) increases as task formality increases • Epenthesis (over deletion) increases as proficiency increases

25. Stress • Some languages have stress and some do not • Stress: English, French, Spanish, Finnish • Tone: Chinese, many African languages • Pitch Accent: Japanese • L2 learners can acquire new settings

26. Non-Stress Languages • Even L1s that lack stress are able to acquire representations that include stress. E.g., Chinese and Japanese learners of English stress

27. Stress • Stress can be predictable: • Polish: penultimate • French: Final • Czech: Initial • Or variable: • English, Russian

28. Stress • The L1 stress rules can influence L2 production and perception

29. Importance of Perception • Mis-perception as basis of foreign accent • L2 sounds shoe-horned into L1 categories • E.g., [q] as [k] • Actually hearing things that aren’t in the input string (Japanese listeners of French): ebzo/ebuzo

30. L1 Perceptual Filter • Japanese has 1 liquid [ɾ] • Japanese learners lend to hear English [r] and [l] as examples of [ɾ] • English speakers tend to hear French [ü] as [u]

31. The L1 does influence the L2 • The L1 grammar does transfer to the L2 and influence the new grammar • At first transfer effects are prevalent, and then the system starts to adopt L2 rules and become a kind of hybrid system

32. Intelligibility/Comprehensibility • Just because someone has an L2 accent doesn’t mean their speech is impossible to understand • Intelligibility is a measure of whether the words can be understood by native listeners • Comprehnsibility is a measure of how difficult it is to retrieve the words being spoken • Some errors are more difficult to process than others

33. You can learn new stuff • Just because you lack certain things in your L1 doesn’t mean you can’t learn them • It’s not like a door has closed • Chinese learners of English [l]/[r] • English learners of Japanese [t]/[tt] • Japanese learners of Russian [r]

34. Global Accent • Even nativelike global accent is not unattainable for late learners (though rare)

35. Age Effects • Adults can acquire nativelike ability • Late learners’ speech rate is slower

36. Should You Start Early? • There are some advantages but it’s never too late.

37. Global Accent

38. Upper Limits of Late SLA Attainment potential not inferior to L1A Similar ends can be reached by different means

39. ERP’s

40. Electrophysiology (ERP) • ERP components reveal certain differences between the brain activation of L1 and L2 speakers. • Age of Acquisition of L2 has an effect on the pattern of brain activation as revealed by ERPs. • High proficiency in L2 results in patterns of activation quite similar to those of native speakers.

41. ERP Signature Components Syntactic Lexical-Semantic LANs P600 N400

42. ERPs and Age of Acquisition • Content words were treated similarly in all groups. • However, function words showed very definite age effects. • Age doesn’t affect all areas equally

43. ERPs and Proficiency in L2 • High proficiency in L2 results in patterns of activation quite similar to those of native speakers. • Age isn’t the only relevant factor.

44. Morphology

45. Two Cognitive Mechanisms IRREGULARS Stored in & retrieved from associative memory (along with arbitrary facts, dates, lists, etc.) REGULARS Computed in procedural system (responsible for coordination of motor & cognitive skills, symbol manipulation, etc.)

46. Special Skills/Special Populations? • So, can anyone do this?

47. Special Populations? • Dyslexia • Developmental delay

48. Special Populations • Students with language or other impairments require special support regardless of the language of instruction

49. Diagnostic Difficulty • It can be difficult sometimes to diagnose learning disability in second language learners (Case & Taylor 2005) • We need to try to provide effective L2 instruction and accommodate learning difficulties (Artiles & Artiz 2002)

50. Accommodation • Teach basic skills or concepts • Reteach via different approaches to those who fail to meet expected performance levels • Refocus instruction • Ortiz, A. (1997). Learning disabilities occurring with linguistic differences.