Incongruence in second language vowel perception and production

Abstract

Nearey’s work on double-weak theory has brought to the fore the conceptualization of native-language (L1) speech perception and production as autonomous subsystems. In second-language (L2) phonetics research, the perception-production relationship is also a central concern, although the facilitating and hampering effects of a previously learned phonological inventory must be taken into account (Flege, 2003). Some current views of L2 phonetic learning assume that a reorganization of perceptual knowledge normally comes first, and that production eventually falls into line with perceptual representations (Huensch, 2013; Thomson, 2011, 2013). However, the available data point to a number of complexities in the relationship that have yet to be accounted for. In the present report, we synthesize new data on vowel perception and production by English learners from a variety of L1 backgrounds. Among the key findings are that (1) perceptual training on vowels in particular phonetic contexts leads to very limited transfer of learning to new phonetic contexts, (2) perceptual accuracy only weakly predicts production accuracy, especially for cross-linguistically marked vowels, (3) word familiarity and frequency correlate with vowel production accuracy, and (4) elicitation techniques influence production accuracy. These issues are discussed in terms of the problems they pose for models of phonetic learning.