The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological Categories
When learning the phonological categories of a second language (L2), learners have to deal with phonetic variation. For instance, allophonic variant forms have to be recognized as the same phoneme. A minimal pair identification task was used to assess how late Spanish learners of German perceive the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00047/full |
| _version_ | 1828452651999690752 |
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| author | Eva Reinisch Eva Reinisch Katharina I. Juhl Miquel Llompart |
| author_facet | Eva Reinisch Eva Reinisch Katharina I. Juhl Miquel Llompart |
| author_sort | Eva Reinisch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When learning the phonological categories of a second language (L2), learners have to deal with phonetic variation. For instance, allophonic variant forms have to be recognized as the same phoneme. A minimal pair identification task was used to assess how late Spanish learners of German perceive the phonological /r/-/h/ contrast. German /r/ was realized as one of three allophones ([r], [r], [ʁ]) that vary in phonetic similarity to /h/ as well as to the typical phonetic form of Spanish /r/ (i.e., [r]). Results showed that learners were very good at identifying all German variant forms (>90% correct). However, [ʁ], which is phonetically closest to German /h/ and furthest from Spanish /r/, was identified significantly worse than [r] and [r]. Relating these results to a cross-language perception task where learners were asked to map the German allophones of /r/ and the phoneme /h/ to different L1 phonological categories further showed that those learners were best at identifying words with [ʁ] who consistently matched it to a single L1 category. Surprisingly this category did not always have to be the phonologically matching Spanish /r/. We conclude that phonological and phonetic relations between the learners' L1 and L2 are important in identifying allophones of the same L2 category. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T23:56:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4ab2247ffe8c46c498c4faba3527c090 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-900X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T23:56:03Z |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-4ab2247ffe8c46c498c4faba3527c0902022-12-22T01:28:36ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2020-07-01510.3389/fcomm.2020.00047528363The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological CategoriesEva Reinisch0Eva Reinisch1Katharina I. Juhl2Miquel Llompart3Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, GermanyAcoustics Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AustriaInstitute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, GermanyDepartment of English and American Studies, Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen, GermanyWhen learning the phonological categories of a second language (L2), learners have to deal with phonetic variation. For instance, allophonic variant forms have to be recognized as the same phoneme. A minimal pair identification task was used to assess how late Spanish learners of German perceive the phonological /r/-/h/ contrast. German /r/ was realized as one of three allophones ([r], [r], [ʁ]) that vary in phonetic similarity to /h/ as well as to the typical phonetic form of Spanish /r/ (i.e., [r]). Results showed that learners were very good at identifying all German variant forms (>90% correct). However, [ʁ], which is phonetically closest to German /h/ and furthest from Spanish /r/, was identified significantly worse than [r] and [r]. Relating these results to a cross-language perception task where learners were asked to map the German allophones of /r/ and the phoneme /h/ to different L1 phonological categories further showed that those learners were best at identifying words with [ʁ] who consistently matched it to a single L1 category. Surprisingly this category did not always have to be the phonologically matching Spanish /r/. We conclude that phonological and phonetic relations between the learners' L1 and L2 are important in identifying allophones of the same L2 category.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00047/fullsecond language learningspeech perceptionsound category learningfree allophonesGermanSpanish |
| spellingShingle | Eva Reinisch Eva Reinisch Katharina I. Juhl Miquel Llompart The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological Categories Frontiers in Communication second language learning speech perception sound category learning free allophones German Spanish |
| title | The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological Categories |
| title_full | The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological Categories |
| title_fullStr | The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological Categories |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological Categories |
| title_short | The Impact of Free Allophonic Variation on the Perception of Second Language Phonological Categories |
| title_sort | impact of free allophonic variation on the perception of second language phonological categories |
| topic | second language learning speech perception sound category learning free allophones German Spanish |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00047/full |
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