Syllable Simplification Strategies: A Stylistic Perspective

Abstract

This study suggests another perspective in viewing the effect of style on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ errors. It is generally assumed that greater accuracy is obtained by second language (L2) learners as style becomes more formal (Tarone, 1983). Although this “formal equals accurate” axiom correctly predicted L2 learners’ production of singleton consonants (e.g., Dickerson & Dickerson, 1977; R. Schmidt, 1987), however, it did not hold true for their pronunciation of more complex structures such as consonant clusters (Major, 1994; Weinberger, 1987). I hypothesize that for consonant clusters, what varies in accordance with style is the learners’ choice of syllable simplification strategies rather than their error rates. The production of English onset consonant clusters by 20 Chinese adult EFL learners in four types of tasks confirmed this prediction: The use of epenthesis increased as the style of the task became more formal, and the percentage of deletions and replacements became higher in less formal tasks.