L2 Accent Research Articles

Quantitative and qualitative aspects of L1 (Swedish) and L2 (English) idiom comprehension

In the present investigation, 15 first term university students were faced with 80 context-based idioms in English (L2) and Swedish (L1) respectively, 30 of which were in the source domain of animals, commonly used in both languages, and asked to explain their meaning. The idioms were of varying frequency and transparency. Three main research questions were thus addressed: 1. How well do students master idioms in their L2 as compared to their L1? 2. How do (a) degrees of transparency, (b) idiom frequency and (c) the choice of source domain affect students’ L1 and L2 comprehension? 3. To what extent is context used when interpreting L1 and L2 idioms? Results show that while the frequency of an idiom does not appear to play a part in whether it is comprehended or not in either language, the degree of transparency is of great importance in students’ L2. Also, students make extensive use of context in their L2.

Getting to Grips with Idioms: Greek Learners vis-à-vis English Idioms

The present paper aims at examining Greek learners’ comprehension and production errors in L2 idiom learning. To this end, four exercises – two focusing on receptive skills and two on productive ones – were distributed to 50 Greek native speakers of advanced English Proficiency in order to assess which idiom-type(s) and exercises cause the biggest problem to Greek learners. It was shown that L2 learners made more errors in idiom-production exercises than in comprehension-based ones and that the biggest error percentage was found in idioms with both structural and semantic dissimilarity to L1 idioms. These findings suggest that Greek learners of English tend to understand the meaning of L2 idiomatic expressions through the use of contextual information and conceptual knowledge but are unable to use them in their own language production, thus making structural, grammatical and contextual mistakes.

Teaching pronunciation: Is explicit phonetics instruction beneficial for FL learners?

Pronunciation instruction has been shown to improve learners' L2 accent in some, though certainly not all, cases. A core component of traditional pronunciation instruction is explicit lessons in L2 phonetics. Studies suggest that Spanish FL learners improve their pronunciation after receiving instruction, but the effect of phonetics instruction has not been directly compared with other pedagogical alternatives. This study reports on the pronunciation gains that first, second, and third year learners (n = 95) made after receiving either explicit instruction in Spanish phonetics or a more implicit treatment with similar input, practice, and feedback. The target phones included a variety of consonants that are problematic for English speakers learning Spanish: stop consonants (/p, t, k/), approximants ([]), and rhotics (/, r/). Learners' production of the target phones was measured in a pretest, posttest, delayed posttest design using a word list reading task. Learners in both groups improved their pronunciation equally, suggesting that it might be the input, practice, and/or feedback included in pronunciation instruction, rather than the explicit phonetics lessons, that are most facilitative of improvement in pronunciation.

Kurdish adolescents acquiring Turkish: Their self‐determined motivation and identification with L1 and L2 communities as predictors of L2 accent attainment

ABSTRACTIn this study, we address the particularly charged question of why young adolescent Kurds living and attending school in Turkey, where their education is conducted entirely in Turkish, acquire the accent of the regional Turkish spoken at school and in society to different degrees of native‐likeness. We have chosen to study accent because previous sociolinguistic research and social views of L2 attainment have suggested accent to be the strongest marker of L2 learners' sociocultural identification (Baugh, 1999; Bongaerts, 1999; Labov, 1972; Moyer, 2004; Scovel, 1988). Moreover, we study accent because it is a salient source of linguistic profiling (Baugh, 1999), an important factor that can influence such extrinsic social rewards as access to jobs, entry into a country, housing, or membership in a group, particularly in communities that are imbued with violent conflicts. In our study, we called upon the constructs of identification with speakers of a person's first and second languages (Duff, 2002; Norton Peirce, 1995; Spolsky, 1989) and of self‐determined motivational patterns (Dörnyei, 2005; Pintrich, 2003; Ryan & Deci, 2000) to help elucidate the differing degrees of success in attaining a native‐like Turkish accent exhibited by Kurdish youth in a Turkish‐speaking society.

The Role of L1 in L2 Idiom Comprehension

The present study investigated the role of first language (L1) transfer in Iranian EFL learners' second language (L2) idiom comprehension. It was also sought to understand whether there is any significant difference between learners of different proficiency levels and their use of L1 in decoding L2 idioms. To do this, the participants of different levels of language proficiency were asked to participate in this study. The L2 idioms were categorized based on their similarity to L1 into three groups of identical, similar and different. A think-aloud protocol analysis was performed and participants were asked to verbalize their thoughts as they read the target idioms in order to detect the strategies they used. The results showed that the most favoured strategy used by learners of different levels was translation. Translation to L1 (Persian) was also the most-frequent strategy in decoding similar, identical and different types of idioms. It was also revealed that generally the participants of different levels were significantly different from each other in using strategies.

Being ‘neutral’? English pronunciation among Norwegian learners

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the pronunciation of English among Norwegian adolescents by applying sociolinguistic methods in a second language context. Results from an auditory analysis of seven phonological variables show a blended use of linguistic features from American English and British English, with some additional pronunciations, forming a hybrid and variable L2 accent. The participants’ pronunciation aligns with their self‐expressed target accents. However, American English is the dominant pronunciation, suggesting influence from imported American media. Although the majority of learners aim towards a native accent, a large minority report a wish to avoid native accents and use a neutral variety of English. The variability in the local appropriation of English reflects the transitional status of English in Norway, and contributes to the increasing diversity in the development of English as a global language. The results have implications for English language educators, who must meet the needs of proficient learners in transitional second language environments.

Teaching English Idioms as Metaphors through Cognitive-Oriented Methods: A Case in an EFL Writing Class

Idioms have long been regarded as problematic for L2 learners due to the arbitrariness of their meanings and forms. Traditional methods of teaching idioms focus on rote learning and memorization. Recent developments in cognitive linguistics research have considered idioms as analyzable expressions which are motivated by conceptual metaphors and whose meanings can derive from associations between source and target concepts. Believed to be imageable and comprehensive, idioms should be learned through the process of raising L2 learners’ awareness of conceptual metaphors behind these expressions. Nevertheless, these methods fail to notice culture entailments embedded in conceptual metaphors. Especially for FL learners who share neither common cultural background nor living environment with the target language users, difficulties resulting from transferability between L1 and L2 idioms owing to cultural similarities and differences may be serious. To bridge the gap between idioms and conceptual metaphors caused by cross-cultural differences, this study suggests a teaching method by incorporating the idea of metaphoric mappings. A case study was conducted in an EFL writing class to investigate the effect of the methods. Essays written by the students before and after the instruction were analyzed. Results showed that the students increased frequencies of using not only common idiomatic expressions but also creative analogies comprising vivid images based on the conceptual metaphors taught. Additionally, they used L2 expressions whose conceptual metaphors also existed in L1 more often then expressions whose conceptual metaphors were exclusive in L2. Such findings affirm the importance of culture and provide valuable insight to EFL teachers in adopting cognitive-oriented method to teach English idioms.

The Effect of Context on the Iranian EFL Learners’ Idiom Retention

Idioms, forms of figurative language, are used pervasively in both spoken and written discourse. However, mainly due to their figurative nature, they are often considered difficult to learn. The present study tried to first of all briefly investigate the language learners’ attitudes toward learning L2 idioms. It then compared the effect of written vs. video-graphic contexts on the language learners’ long-term and short-term retention of idioms. To know about the language learners’ attitudes to learning English idioms and their relevant experiences, a questionnaire was administered to a group of Iranian EFL learners. The results of the questionnaire proved their highly positive view toward learning idioms and their need for helpful and facilitating learning strategies. At the second stage of the study, two similar groups of intermediate EFL learners were exposed to unfamiliar idioms through a story in written and video-graphic contexts. The subjects were also given the definitions on a separate sheet to check. The subjects’ long-term and short-term retention were then tested and compared. The results of the study showed no significant difference between the performances of the two groups regarding their short term retention, while with respect to long-term retention; the animation group i.e. the one exposed to the video-graphic context significantly outperformed the text group. The results of the study also support the dual coding theory which emphasizes the role of mental imagery in retention.

Influence of Early and Late Academic Exposure to L2 on Perception of L1 and L2 Accent

This paper explored the influence of early and late academic exposure to an L2 (English) on the perception of L1 (Bengali) and L2 (English) accent. Based on the perception of real and novel words in L1 and L2 contexts, 12 monolingual Bengali listeners and 12 monolingual Standard American English listeners judged the “nativelike” accent of 20 Bengali-English bilingual speakers (10 speakers had early and 10 had late academic exposure to an L2). In each stimulus category (i.e., real and novel), 2 words had trochaic and 2 words had iambic stress pattern. Except in the L1 novel context, speakers with early L2 exposure received higher “nativelike” accent ratings in both L1 and in L2. The two groups of bilinguals were comparable in the L1 novel context. Real words with trochaic stress pattern were perceived as more “nativelike” in both L1 and L2 contexts. The results suggest that the age of academic exposure to an L2 differentially interacts with the perception of L1 and L2 accent, and with perception based on the novelty of the stimuli. Cross-linguistic transfer alone might not always explain bilinguals’ linguistic behaviors. Active interplay of multiple social, linguistic, and physiological factors needs to be considered.

The Effect of Three Techniques for Teaching English Idioms to Iranian TEFL Undergraduates

The present study investigated the effect of using picture, Persian translation equivalent (L1), and English definition (L2) on the learning of 20 decomposable and nondecomposable idioms by 68 Iranian TEFL undergraduates. The focus was on learning both meaning as well as form of the idioms. The idioms were given to the participants to translate into Persian three weeks before the experiment to ensure the participants’ unfamiliarity of the idioms. The idioms that were known even by one student were crossed out. Each group of the participants received the instruction in 3 sessions (about 7 idioms each session), and reviewed them in the fourth. The participants received 2 recognition tests (one on form and the other on meaning of the L2 idioms) in the form of multiple-choice in the fifth session, and the same recognition as well as 2 production tests in the form of fill-in-the-blanks 3 weeks later (first on form and then on meaning). The delayed posttests were given in 2 consecutive sessions: first, the production and then the recognition. The findings showed that the picture group outperformed the other groups in all situations. However, a significant outperformance of L1 group over L2 group was observed for decomposable idioms in the first posttest regarding form. The results suggest the pedagogical value of pictures for the teaching of meaning and form of decomposable idioms

Accent, listening assessment and the potential for a shared-L1 advantage: A DIF perspective

This paper reports on an investigation of the potential for a shared-L1 advantage on an academic English listening test featuring speakers with L2 accents. Two hundred and twelve second-language listeners (including 70 Mandarin Chinese L1 listeners and 60 Japanese L1 listeners) completed three versions of the University Test of English as a Second Language (UTESL) listening sub-test which featured an Australian English-accented speaker, a Japanese-accented speaker and a Mandarin Chinese-accented speaker. Differential item functioning (DIF) analyses were conducted on data from the tests which featured L2-accented speakers using two methods of DIF detection – the standardization procedure and the Mantel-Haenszel procedure – with candidates matched for ability on the test featuring the Australian English-accented speaker. Findings showed that Japanese L1 listeners were advantaged on a small number of items on the test featuring the Japanese-accented speaker, but these were balanced by items which favoured non-Japanese L1 listeners. By contrast, Mandarin Chinese L1 listeners were clearly advantaged across several items on the test featuring a Mandarin Chinese L1 speaker. The implications of these findings for claims of bias are discussed with reference to the role of speaker accent in the listening construct.

Second-language experience and speech-in-noise recognition: Effects of talker–listener accent similarity

Previous work has shown that the intelligibility of speech in noise is degraded if the speaker and listener differ in accent, in particular when there is a disparity between native (L1) and nonnative (L2) accents. This study investigated how this talker-listener interaction is modulated by L2 experience and accent similarity. L1 Southern British English, L1 French listeners with varying L2 English experience, and French-English bilinguals were tested on the recognition of English sentences mixed in speech-shaped noise that was spoken with a range of accents (French, Korean, Northern Irish, and Southern British English). The results demonstrated clear interactions of accent and experience, with the least experienced French speakers being most accurate with French-accented English, but more experienced listeners being most accurate with L1 Southern British English accents. An acoustic similarity metric was applied to the speech productions of the talkers and the listeners, and significant correlations were obtained between accent similarity and sentence intelligibility for pairs of individuals. Overall, the results suggest that L2 experience affects talker-listener accent interactions, altering both the intelligibility of different accents and the selectivity of accent processing.

Idiom Taxonomies and Idiom Comprehension: Implications for English Teachers

Idioms are an important part of a language, as they are used to express ideas in a more concise and effective way. Idioms have a considerable role in a foreign language as in the mother tongue. Therefore, their learning and teaching in L2 are worthy of attention and research. This paper intends to define idioms, introduce their different taxonomies, discuss L2 idiom processing and comprehension, and use the information to endow English teachers with some pedagogical implications.

The Contribution of Movie Clips to Idiom Learning Improvement of Iranian EFL Learners

Learning idioms in a foreign language in which there are numerous problems in exposing the learners to authentic situations has faced many pedagogical difficulties. Many researchers (Gibbs, 1992: Honeck, 1997: Simpson & Mendi, 2003) have tried to know more about the process of idiom learning and the effect of mother tongue on understanding idioms, because idioms are among the difficult areas of learning a foreign or second language. This study was an attempt to examine the impact of applying movie clips including idioms on the quality of idiom learning. To this end, 100 gifted high school students, aged between 16 and 18 were selected. Then, an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to select 60 intermediate students. Due to the matched-pair technique, they were divided into two equal experimental and control groups. In order to find out whether the students have any prior knowledge about the new idioms, a pre-test including an idiom multiple choice test was used. The control group was taught 30 idioms conventionally using synonyms and antonyms. The experimental group received the treatment and the idioms were taught using movie clips. After 10 weeks an idiom multiple choice test based on the materials taught was administered to both groups. Then, 60 students and 10 high school English teachers completed an attitudinal questionnaire reflecting their attitudes towards learning idioms through the suggested way. The statistical analyses of the collected data showed that there was a significant difference between the obtained means of the two groups, meaning that, the experimental group outperformed the control one. Therefore, teachers, students, test makers, test designers, and materials developers should consider the effectiveness of using movie clips and films in L2 idiom learning/teaching.

Articulatory Behaviors of Nonnative Speakers: Role of L2 Proficiency and Accent Modification

To sound native-like, nonnative speakers need to approximate the articulatory patterns of native speakers. When nonnative speakers deviate from native speakers' production patterns, it gives rise to a nonnative accent. This study examines how proficiency in a second language (L2) is related to processing skills in L2, as measured by the accuracy of consonant production. 10 monolingual speakers of American English, 10 Bengali-English bilinguals with high proficiency in English, and 10 Bengali-English bilinguals with low proficiency in English participated. The participants spoke 16 nonwords of four different syllable lengths. Productions were phonetically transcribed. Results suggested that nonnative speakers' L2 proficiency differentially interacted with overall phonemic accuracy, usage of appropriate place, manner and voicing features, position of consonants within target words, and syllable length. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of customized strategies for modification of nonnative accents.

Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training: Targeting Second Language Vowel Perception Improves Pronunciation

This paper first provides an overview of factors that constrain ultimate attainment in adult second language (L2) pronunciation, finding that first language influence and the quantity and quality of L2 phonetic input account for much of the variation in the degree of foreign accent found across adult L2 learners. The author then evaluates current approaches to computer assisted pronunciation training (CAPT), concluding that they are not well grounded in a current understanding of L2 accent. Finally, the author reports on a study in which twenty-two Mandarin speakers were trained to better discriminate ten Canadian English vowels. Using a specially designed computer application, learners were randomly presented with recordings of the target vowels in monosyllabic frames, produced by twenty native speakers. The learners responded by clicking on one of ten salient graphical images representing each vowel category and were given both visual and auditory feedback as to the accuracy of their selections. Pre- and post-tests of the learners’ English vowel pronunciation indicated that their vowel intelligibility significantly improved as a result of training, not only in the training context, but also in an untrained context. In a third context, vowel intelligibility did not improve.

Suppression of literal meanings in L2 idiom processing: Does context help?

Most current idiom processing models acknowledge, after Gernsbacher and Robertson (1999) that deriving an idiomatic meaning entails suppression of contextually inappropriate, literal meanings of idiom constituent words. While embedding idioms in the rich disambiguating context can promote earlier suppression of incompatible literal meanings, idioms embedded in the neutral context, favoring neither their literal nor figurative reading, are likely to become disambiguated much later in the course of their comprehension. The study reported in this paper investigates the role of context in suppressing irrelevant, literal meanings of idioms in the course of their processing by Polish proficient speakers of English. Ambiguous (literally plausible) English idioms were embedded in sentences which were either neutral (i.e., did not bias either the literal or figurative reading of the idiom, e.g., There was no need to add fuel to the fire) or figurative-biased (e.g., The chairman is in a bad mood so do not say anything, as this will only add fuel to the fire) and followed by targets related literally (e.g., HEAT) or figuratively (e.g., WORSE) to idiom meanings and displayed either immediately at idiom offset (0 ms) or after 300 ms. The self-paced reading paradigm was employed, in which participants first read the idiomatic sentences at their own pace and then made a lexical decision, i.e., decided if the displayed target string is a legitimate English word or not. Context was shown to play an important role in suppressing irrelevant meanings, but its effects were modulated by salience (prominence) of idioms’ literal meanings as well as the time that elapsed from the end of the sentence to the display of the target stimulus.

Gender differences in motivation and L2 accent attainment: an investigation of young Kurdish learners of Turkish

Although some earlier studies reported female and child superiority in learning a second language (L2), current research has been inconclusive as to whether, and why, this might be the case. Using a socio-cultural paradigm, this study addresses how motivation, gender and age relate to the attainment of a native-like accent for young Kurdish learners of Turkish. A mixed methodological design was used to collect data from 56 girls and 65 boys at middle and high schools. Results suggested that as the level of integrated orientation increased, accent ratings increased for all participants; introjection, however, was a significant negative predictor of accent native-likeness only for boys. Furthermore, integrated orientation was associated with accent native-likeness for both middle- and high-school students while introjection orientation was a significant negative predictor only for high-school students. Interpreting the qualitative data, the study also presents indicative evidence of the gendered forms of motivation and their relation to native-like accent attainment.

The identity and L2 accent from an EIL angle

The relationship between identity and pronunciation has been adequately researched from a wide variety of political, social and linguistic perspectives. Pronunciation, in a narrower sense accent, is proclaimed one of the prime determinants of identity construction and L2 learners, intentionally or not, manipulate it either to diverge from or converge towards the target speech communities. There are some material and symbolic resources, available in target speech communities, which L2 learners may aspire to get access to, this time through manipulating their pronunciation to seem more native-like. Meanwhile the idea of acquiring a native-like accent no longer seems justifiable enough in an international context where there is no native speaker or community to approximate to. Therefore, the present study argues against the still current pedagogical notion among English teachers that L2 learners should get native-like fluency in pronunciation. To illustrate the relationship between the two concepts, the argument is approached from a pronunciation pedagogy perspective. So far as pronunciation teaching is concerned there are two main principles, on pronunciation teaching, in ELT: the nativeness principle and the intelligibility principle. The author sides with the latter against the former and argues that intelligibility principle can be considered one of the best possible solutions arrived for those who aspire to learn English as an additional language, but are afraid of losing their identities. Since the nativeness principle makes an implied promise which is reducing their first language accents, hence the loss of their first languages and identities. Equally clearly, the study might have profound political and pedagogical implications for the teachers, materials writers and even the students themselves. Key words: Identity, L2 pronunciation, pronunciation pedagogy, nativeness principle, Intelligibility principle.

Hemispheric asymmetries in processing L1 and L2 idioms: Effects of salience and context

This study investigates the contribution of the left and right hemispheres to the comprehension of bilingual figurative language and the joint effects of salience and context on the differential cerebral involvement in idiom processing. The divided visual field and the lexical decision priming paradigms were employed to examine the activation of salient and nonsalient ambiguous idiom interpretations (i.e., literal vs. non-literal) in the two hemispheres. Literally plausible ambiguous idioms, L1 (Polish) and L2 (English), were embedded in unconstraining ambiguous (e.g., I knew he kept an ace up his sleeve) or constraining unambiguous context clearly favoring their conventional idiomatic interpretation (e.g., The debating president kept an ace up his sleeve). Idioms were presented centrally, followed by laterally presented targets related to the figurative (e.g., GAIN) or literal (e.g., SHIRT) meaning of the idiom and displayed at Interstimulus Intervals (ISIs) of 0 ms (Experiment 1), 300 ms (Experiment 2), and 800 ms (Experiment 3). Results indicate that context and salience effects are significantly modulated by the language (native vs. nonnative) of the stimulus materials being presented to each hemisphere. Literal facilitation was found for L2 idioms in all three ISI conditions, which supports the notion of the special status that literal meanings of L2 idioms enjoy in the course of their processing by nonnative language users. No significant differences were found between the right and left hemispheres in regards to their sensitivity to contextual constraints. Results are discussed in terms of the Graded Salience Hypothesis and the Fine/Coarse Coding Theory.