Manifestation of Phonetic Interference in the Speech of Students Learning German as a Second Foreign Language

Abstract

This article is aimed at investigating the impact of the phonetic system of a native language (L1) and the first foreign language (L2) on the pronunciation characteristics of vowels and consonants of the second foreign language (L3). The purpose of the study is to describe cases of phonetic interference in the oral speech of Russian–speaking students studying German as L3. 920 cases of vowel sounds /a/, /ɔ/, /ʊ/ realizations and 587 realizations of consonant sounds /R/, / t͡s /, / p͡f /, /ç/ in the speech of 4 students were studied. The undoubted influence of L2 on L3 was revealed, which manifests itself both in transference and interference. Thus, the vowel sound /ɔ/ is pronounced correctly by all the speakers; the formant frequencies are close to F1 and F2 for German sounds (which is close to the values of English vowels), the vowel sounds /a/, /ʊ/ are pronounced by three of the four speakers as English vowels /ʊ/, /a:/, /ʌ/. The most striking errors in the speech of speakers include the implementation of the English sound /r/ instead of the German /R/ in the middle of the word. Thus, when teaching L3, it is necessary to take into account the interfering influence of, not only a native language, but also L2. It is logical to rely on the knowledge, skills and abilities already acquired by students when learning their L2. However, special attention should be paid to the differences between the phonetic systems of L2 and L3, since there is a great risk of substitution of mismatched sounds. KeywordsPhonetic interferenceSecond foreign languageFormantsAcoustic analysisThe German language