Vowel quality in intermediate L2 Spanish learners: a study of lexical, linguistic, and individual variables

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current study analyzes vowel quality production across the lexical factors of cognate status and timing of word introduction, the linguistic factor of vowel position (pre-tonic, tonic, or post-tonic), and individual factors including age of acquisition of Spanish and length of study abroad. Participants were 29 intermediate second language Spanish learners who completed an oral text reading task. Results found that learners pronounced vowels differently in early as compared to later introduced words and in tonic (stressed) position compared to unstressed (pre-tonic/post-tonic) position. However, cognate status and individual factors were in general not statistically significant. These results lead us to suggest that pronunciation instruction should ideally begin early in the acquisition process and include explanations of vowel production in unstressed syllables.