Speech rhythm of english as L2

Leônidas José Da Silva Junior,Plínio Almeida Barbosa

doi:10.20396/joss.v8i2.14996

Leônidas José Da Silva Junior, Plínio Almeida Barbosa

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.20396/joss.v8i2.14996

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Abstract

When speaking a foreign language (L2), non-native speakers’ (NNS) speech contains some variable degree of foreign accent (FA) that is perceivable by the native speakers (NS) of that language based on the production of phonetic gestures characteristic of their mother tongue (L1), and that differ from those of the foreign language (L2) in terms of the segmental (vowels and consonants) and prosodic (stress, rhythm and intonation) features. Causes such as neuro-plasticity and length of residence, for example, are claimed to interfere in L2 production. This work aims to analyze how L2 speech rhythm of English is produced by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers and how prosodic variables such as, metric and acoustic correlates, influence FA. This research is based on Barbosa (2006) for the dynamic determination of speech rhythm in addition to Ramus et. al. (1999) and so, on the choice of metrics and segmentation procedures. As for the methods of analysis, phonetic data from twenty BP and four American speakers were collected. Next, the data were segmented into different unit procedures for the purpose of carrying out acoustic and statistical analysis. Results pointed out to a significant difference between L1 and L2 rhythms.

Highlights

When speaking a foreign language (L2), non-native speakers‟ (NNS) produce different phonetic features that are perceivable by the native speakers (NS)
Shedding light on L2 speech rhythm, this research aims to analyze how English as L2 is produced by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers from spontaneous speech and how acoustic correlates such as duration, fundamental frequency (F0) and intensity may influence these productions
It is worth noting that, considering we are laying discussion on durational values, it would be wise and reasonable to assign to BP speakers higher values since “timing” by means of duration plays the most important role on the metric values hither used

Summary

Introduction

When speaking a foreign language (L2), non-native speakers‟ (NNS) produce different phonetic features that are perceivable by the native speakers (NS). Such features are based on the production of phonetic gestures characteristic of their mother tongue (L1), and differ from those of the L2 in terms of the segmental (vowels and consonants) and prosodic (stress, rhythm and intonation) features (see Flege, 1995). Barry (2007) argues that in SLA, the concept of speech rhythm should not be taken into account, and the practitioner should concentrate on underlying phonological processes, such as the reduction of vowels in weak forms, contrasts of duration and quality of vowels as well as reduction of consonant clusters. Let us notice, thereupon, that the mentioned aspects by Barry are part of a prosodic set (see Barbosa, 2000) and are present in the temporal and dynamic speech domain

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