The acquisition of English stress by Kazakh-Russian bilinguals: The role of dominant language

Abstract

This study systematically investigates the cross-linguistic influence of the acquisition of English lexical stress by Kazakh-Russian bilinguals. Experiment 1 examined the Kazakh accent/stress pattern. Even though there is an argument about Kazakh stress, we used near minimal pairs in Kazakh such as balaDAR “children” vs. balaDAY “like a child, childish.” By measuring duration, intensity, and pitch on 20 Kazakh-Russian bilinguals with strong Kazakh language level, we compared the stressed syllable versus unstressed syllables in the near minimal pairs and found duration as a stronger cue for the stress/accent in the syllables. In experiment 2 we investigated the roles of Russian as the dominant language in cross-linguistic influences. We used ten minimal pairs in Russian produced by 20 Russian bilinguals who claimed their native language is Russian. The results showed Kazakh-Russian bilinguals produced Russian stress using duration. Experiment 3 focuses on the acquisition of stress pattern in English by Kazakh-Russian bilinguals. We recruited 40 participants with (IELTS= 7.0) producing 10 English minimal pairs in three conditions. We found that duration and intensity are stronger cues than F0. None of the group used F0 as a stress cue in English lexical stress. The result will be discussed regarding dominant Russian language.