Ethnic Group Affiliation and Patterns of Development of a Phonological Variable

Abstract

In today's increasingly multicultural and multilingual world, having the ability to use a variety of second (L2) or foreign languages is no longer just a luxury but a socioeconomic necessity. This situation has given rise to an urgency to understand more deeply the relationship between L2 learning and use and factors arising from membership in social groups. In this study, we examined the association between a group of Quebec Francophones’ sense of belonging to their ethnic group (ethnic group affiliation, or EGA) and their English pronunciation accuracy. The results revealed that certain component dimensions of EGA were negatively associated with participants’ pronunciation accuracy of the English voiced interdental fricative (e.g., // in other), an important marker of ethnolinguistic identity. The stronger the EGA, the less native-like the L2 pronunciation accuracy. This EGA–pronunciation accuracy link, however, was mediated by the amount of self-reported L2 use. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for L2 and foreign language learning in contexts in which ethnolinguistic identity issues are important.