Abstract
The present study deals with the perception (identification and discrimination) of an English phonemic contrast (/t∫/–/∫/, as in cheat and sheet) by speakers of two Mexican varieties of Spanish who are learning English as a foreign language. Unlike English, Spanish does not contrast /t∫/ and /∫/ phonemically. Most Spanish varieties have [t∫], but not [∫]. In northwestern Mexico, [∫] and [t∫] find themselves in a situation of “free” variation—perhaps conditioned, to some extent, by social factors, but not in complementary distribution. In this variety, [∫] and [t∫] are variants of the same phoneme. The present study compares the perceptual behavior of English learners from northwestern Mexico, with that of learners from central Mexico, whose native dialect includes only [t∫]. The results of a word-categorization task show that both groups of learners find cheat and sheet difficult to identify in the context of each other, but that, relative to the other learner group, the group of learners in northwestern Mexico find this task to be particularly challenging. The results of a categorical discrimination task show that both learner groups find the members of the /t∫/–/∫/ contrast difficult to discriminate. On average, accuracy is lower for the group of learners in northwestern Mexico than it is for the central Mexicans. The findings suggest that the phonetic variants found in one’s native dialect modulate the perception of nonnative sounds and, consequently, that people who speak different regional varieties of the same language may face different obstacles when learning the sounds of their second language.
Highlights
Most people “have an accent” when speaking a language other than their native one(s)
The findings suggest that the phonetic variants found in one’s native dialect modulate the perception of nonnative sounds and, that people who speak different regional varieties of the same language may face different obstacles when learning the sounds of their second language
The present study aims at contributing to the literature on the effects of native linguistic is that of an allophonic split (Barrios et al 2016b; Eckman et al 2001)
Summary
Most people “have an accent” when speaking a language other than their native one(s). (i.e., and their they acquire and these they new One sounds these a Native speakers of some varieties ofboth Rlearning one they can recycle from their language, they must create a create new contrastive category, phonemic opposition. /∫/–/t∫/, by two groups with categorization patterns inpatterns the perception of Díaz an English phonemic contrast, Most importantly, it examines the relative difficulty underlying phonological representations presents a substantial acquisitional obstacle a different kind The present study aims at English contributing toofcontrasts the literature onnorthwestern thetwo effects of native linguis developing new categories sounds) versus that of developing new phonemic between with categorization patterns inMoreno the perception of1994; an phonemic contrast,. Are common of thevariants same word, of varieties thecharco sameof word, It seems to follow
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