Abstract
This paper presents a study of linguistic and sociolinguistic factors that modulate Serbian EFL learners’ production of postvocalic /r/. The aim of the study was to assess the degree of rhoticity, i.e. to test whether Serbian EFL learners’ speech is closer to the rhotic (General American), or the non-rhotic (Southern British Standard) English variety. Fifteen students (8 female and 7 male) participated in this research as informants. As for the external factors, the informants’ gender, target norm, and their media exposure to the rhotic/non-rhotic English variety were closely observed. Internal factors which were taken into account were: syllable structure, the quality of the preceding vowel and lexical frequency. The results revealed that Serbian EFL learners’ speech is, in fact, significantly closer (73.99%) to the rhotic English variety. The realization of postvocalic /r/ was higher among men, especially among those informants who labeled their pronunciation as General American and among the informants who reported greater exposure to the said English variety. In terms of linguistic factors, postvocalic /r/ was realized most often in less frequent words, specifically in word-medial position. The research findings also suggest that back vowels, in particular, tend to favor rhotic pronunciation.
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