(Mis) perception of consonant clusters and short vowels in English as a foreign language

Leung, Alex, Young-Scholten, Martha, Almurashi, Wael, Ghadanfari, Saleh, Nash, Chloe and Outhwaite, Olivia (2023) (Mis) perception of consonant clusters and short vowels in English as a foreign language. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 61 (3). pp. 731-764. ISSN 0019-042X

Preview	Text (Advance online version) 10.1515_iral-2021-0030 (1).pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview
Preview	Text Leung et al 2021 - accepted version.pdf - Accepted Version Download (991kB) | Preview

Abstract

Research addressing second language (L2) speech is expanding. Studies increasingly demonstrate that a learner’s first language (L1) filters the L2 input, resulting in learners misperceiving what they have heard. This L1 filter can result in learners perceiving sounds not actually present in the input. We report on a study which explored English consonant clusters and short, unstressed vowel perception of 70 Arabic-, Mandarin-, Spanish-speaking foreign language learners and 19 native English speakers. These are the vowels which speakers from two of the L1s typically insert in their production of English to break up L1-disallowed consonant clusters and the schwa which is documented to cause both perception and production problems. Results show that participants misperceive stimuli containing consonant clusters and counterparts where clusters are broken up by epenthetic/prothetic elements. In line with Sakai, Mari & Colleen Moorman 2018. We call for the inclusion of such findings on perception in pedagogical advice on pronunciation.

Actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads