Probing rhythmic patterns in english-L2

Ronaldo Mangueira Lima Junior,Guilherme Duarte Garcia

doi:10.20396/joss.v6i1.14984

Ronaldo Mangueira Lima Junior, Guilherme Duarte Garcia

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.20396/joss.v6i1.14984

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Abstract

Languages are traditionally classified as mora-timed, syllable-timed or stress-timed in relation to their rhythmic patterns. The distinction between syllable-timed and stress-timed languages, however, lacks solid evidence in the literature. Syllable-timed languages typically have similar duration across unstressed and stressed syllables, whereas stress-timed languages tend to have similar inter-stress intervals, and unstressed syllables are shorter than stressed syllables. According to this categorical classification, English is a stress-timed language, thus having more reduction in unstressed vowels. Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, is typically classified as syllable-timed, and thus has little reduction of unstressed vowels. If these categorical rhythmic differences are correct, then acquiring the rhythmic patterns of English should be a challenging task to Brazilian learners, who are not expected to produce unstressed vowels with as much reduction as English native speakers. However, recent studies have found that the typology of rhythm is best understood as not categorical, but rather gradient, and that Brazilian Portuguese has a mixed classification, with more stress timing than would be expected from a traditional and categorical perspective. We therefore hypothesize that Brazilian learners of English should not have major difficulties reducing unstressed vowels, even when exposed to the second language later in life. To test this hypothesis, we analyze production data of native speakers of English (control group) and of Brazilian advanced learners of English.

Highlights

There is not much consensus among scholars regarding the existence of a critical period for second language (L2) acquisition, especially if taking into account a biological view of critical periods, i.e., a period after which a certain behavior cannot be acquired at all
We focus on differences in vowel reduction in English and in English-L2 spoken by Brazilian learners
We presented a preliminary analysis of the rhythm of English-L2 of advanced Brazilian learners

Summary

Introduction

There is not much consensus among scholars regarding the existence of a critical period for second language (L2) acquisition, especially if taking into account a biological view of critical periods, i.e., a period after which a certain behavior cannot be acquired at all (see [1,2,3] for review). A second trend is that the difficulty to acquire the sound patterns in the L2 is positively correlated with the age of exposure to the L2 This correlation, is not necessarily linear, and ultimate attainment may vary considerably vis-à-vis learners' age [1,10,18,19,20,21,22,23]. The lack of linearity and determinism between age and acquisition is aligned with the view of language acquisition as a complex dynamic system [24,25,26] In such systems, processes are more important than products, since their dynamic nature prevents them from reaching a final state, which, in turn, challenges the notion of ultimate attainment and even of acquisition. We highlight the most important results and suggest future directions for the study of English-L2 rhythm

Stress- vs Syllable-timing

Method

Data Analysis

Conclusions