Markedness Differential Hypothesis Research Articles

Investigating Mandarin Erhua acquisition in Linxia Hui (Muslim) children: insights from the Markedness Differential Hypothesis

Investigating Mandarin Erhua acquisition in Linxia Hui (Muslim) children: insights from the Markedness Differential Hypothesis

Acquisition of the third person singular allomorphs of the simple present tense in English by Panamanian senior-level learners of English

The purpose of this quantitative study with an exploratory and descriptive scope was to apply the concepts of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) and Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (Major & Kim, 1996) in the production of the allomorphs of the third person singular of the English simple present tense by Panamanian Spanish senior-level learners of English. The researchers used a custom-designed book containing images as a research instrument, administering it twice to the sample group. The data collected through this method was subsequently subjected to analysis employing concepts from auditory and acoustic phonetics. The simple descriptive statistics showed that the sample had mastered 64% of the allomorphs of the third-person singular of the English simple present tense. These results could be the base for further research with correlational and explanatory scopes with many participants to confirm or disregard the patterns found in this study.

The Acquisition of “N + that” Appositive Clauses of Chinese EFL Learners: A Corpus-Based Study

The present research used a corpus-based method to investigate Chinese EFL learners’ acquisition of “N + that” appositive clauses by comparing data from the TECCL corpus of Chinese English learners and the NESSIE corpus of native English speakers. Quantitatively, the number of Ns (nouns) distributed in “N + that” appositive clauses in the TECCL has no significant difference from that in the NESSIE; but results of Chi-square tests revealed that the Ns that are frequently used by Chinese learners in these clauses are significantly different from those used by English native speakers, which may result from the grammatical drills in English teaching and learning in Chinese schools. Qualitatively, Errors occurring in the “N + that” appositive clauses in Chinese EFL learners’ compositions could be classified into two types: Errors in Vocabulary and Errors in Sentence Structure; and the errors could be explained by the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977, 1989) and the Interlanguage Theory (Selinker, 1972). This study may bring implications to the teaching and learning/acquisition of English appositive clauses.

The Acquisition of Arabic and English Relative Clauses by L2 English and Arabic Learners

This study explored the acquisition of Arabic and English relative clauses by L2 English and Arabic learners. It examined the extent to which the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy (NPAH) (Keenan and Comrie 1977) and the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) (Eckman 1977) account for the acquisition of English and Arabic relative pronouns by English and Arabic L2 learners. Twenty Arabic-speaking learners of English and twenty English-speaking learners of Arabic were selected. To this end, four different tasks were used in this regard, namely the Sentence Combination task, the Multiple-Choice task, the Picture Description task, and the Grammaticality Judgement task. The results of this study showed that Arabic learners of English were able to comprehend and produce relative pronouns successfully. However, their performance was found to be affected by the system of relative pronouns of Arabic. For example, they were found better in producing who than whom. Additionally, the study found that the performance of Arabic learners of English was influenced by the type of the task (i.e., Sentence Combination Task is harder than the Multiple-Choice Task). On the other hand, the English-speaking learners of Arabic (i.e., the L2 Arabic group) produced and comprehended the Arabic relative pronouns easily despite their L1 language interference. The overall results showed that the NPAH and the MDH were able to predict the mistakes made by L2 learners of Arabic and English.

Absence of English Phonemes from Arabic; The Impact on EFL and ESL learners’ Production of Loanwords

The present study aims to address whether the absence of foreign English phonemes from the Arabic phonemic inventory have impacts of EFL and ESL learners’ pronunciation of English loanwords differently. The study adopts a comparative approach, seeking to examine whether the two groups of learners used the same or different phonemes for substituting or approximating the target phonemes. 28 English loanwords were utilized to test the productions of 15 learners at Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz University, Saudi Arabia (EFL) and 15 learners at the Center for English as a Second Language in Southern Illinois University, USA (ESL). Probing the impact of the learners’ L1, Arabic language, on the production of loanwords via numerous theories and frameworks such as transfer, approximation, and the Markedness Differential Hypothesis showed that these English loanwords underwent certain phonological modifications. Both EFL and ESL learners showed transfer from L1 to L2, native Arabic phonological processes, while only ESL learners showed a universal pattern, such as VOT approximation. That is, both EFL and ESL learners substituted /v, ɹ, tʃ/ with /f, r, ʃ/, but they differed in their production of /p/. While EFL learners substituted /p/ with /b/, ESL learners reflected approximated sound to /p/.

The Variability in Phonology of Indonesian Learner’s Interlanguage: A case study on English marked-fricatives

Interlanguage is the most fruitful issue in the field of second language acquisition. In the interlanguage phase, Indonesian learners of English tend to alternate between two forms of language features to express the same language function where a variation of language forms will be exhibited to mark the variable of linguistic function. Variability in phonology of interlanguage is the most interesting subject to investigate based on markedness differential hypothesis theory. This study is aimed at finding out (1) marked sounds of English fricatives: [θ], [ð], [ʃ], and [ʒ] which are indicated as interlanguage variants; and (2) how interlanguage sound variants emerge based on surround the varying element. There were 30 college students of English study purposively selected to become respondents in this research representing advance and intermediate proficiency of English speaking. The data were taken from two types of task namely word list reading and sentence reading. There were 600-word tokens containing target marked sounds of fricative [θ], [ð], [ʃ], and [ʒ] obtained from the data collection. The analysis was done quantitatively to find the percentages of non-interlanguge sounds and interlanguge ones produced by respondents. The result showed that fricatives such as [θ], [ʃ], and [ʒ] have phonological variations in interlanguage with certain positions of word being pronounced. These phonological variations emerge due to the generalization of pronunciation by similar-ending sounds, the certain vowel sound preceding marked sounds, and the absence of consonant clusters in learners’ native language which bears the variation of certain marked fricatives of English.

The /s/ ~ /z/ voice contrast in L1 French, L1 Spanish and L1 Italian learners of L2 English

Abstract In this study, we present a comparative corpus-based analysis of the English /s/ ~ /z/ voice contrast for learners of three L1s. Acoustic analysis of periodicity and duration for target segments confirms expectations based on L1 transfer and on the Markedness Differential Hypothesis. We found that, due to the absence of phonemic /z/ in Spanish, L1 Spanish learners exhibit great difficulty in producing voiced realisations for /z/, and more so in the (more marked) word-final position than in the (less marked) word-medial position. In contrast, L1 French and L1 Italian learners did not exhibit difficulties in reproducing the voicing patterns of English /s/ ~ /z/ neither word-medially nor word-finally, due to the existence of these sounds in their L1 (and despite differences in relative markedness for these two positions, especially considering that word-final /z/ does not exist in Italian). Finally, we observed the impact of orthography on the production of L1 French and L1 Italian learners, affecting the periodicity of /s/ and /z/ depending on spelling transparency.

Ease and Difficulty in L2 Phonology: A Mini-Review

A variety of phonological explanations have been proposed to account for why some sounds are harder to learn than others. In this mini-review, we review such theoretical constructs and models as markedness (including the markedness differential hypothesis) and frequency-based approaches (including Bayesian models). We also discuss experimental work designed to tease apart markedness versus frequency. Processing accounts are also given. In terms of phonological domains, we present examples of feature-based accounts of segmental phenomena which predict that the L1 features (not segments) will determine the ease and difficulty of acquisition. Models which look at the type of feature which needs to be acquired, and models which look at the functional load of a given feature are also presented. This leads to a presentation of the redeployment hypothesis which demonstrates how learners can take the building blocks available in the L1 and create new structures in the L2. A broader background is provided by discussing learnability approaches and the constructs of positive and negative evidence. This leads to the asymmetry hypothesis, and presentation of new work exploring the explanatory power of a contrastive hierarchy approach. The mini-review is designed to give readers a refresher course in phonological approaches to ease and difficulty in acquisition which will help to contextualize the papers presented in this collection.

The Difference between Standard American English Pronunciation and the Interlanguage of English Department Students of the Class of 2015 at Andalas University

This study discusses (1) the differences between the students’ interlanguage and standard American English pronunciation, and (2) the patterns of phonetic shift from the Standard American English into the students’ Interlanguage Pronunciation. The participants of this research were English Department students, the year of 2015, at Andalas University and were selected by using stratified random sampling with academic achievement as the criteria in choosing the sample. The data were collected by using picture description task and analyzed by using Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) by Eckman (1977) where the markedness relation among the sounds were found by using Markedness Hierarchy by Lombardi (1995, 1998). The result of the analysis showed that the most frequent errors that the participants made were the pronunciation of [ð], [θ], and [v] where the participants replaced [ð] with [d],[θ] with [t], and [v] with [f]. The difficulties of the participants were mostly in line with Eckman’s MDH.

Pronunciation Acquisition of the Inflectional Morpheme –ed in English by Nicaraguan Spanish Speakers

This descriptive non-experimental quantitative study investigated if the pronunciation of the –ed morphemeim proves as the English proficiency level develops. A random sampling design was used to recruit research participants. A target sample of 48 Nicaraguan English as a foreign language students were chosen from an accessible population (N= 91) to participate in this research. The participants’ age ranged from 18 to 24, with a mean age of 21 years. They belonged to three English proficiency levels: high beginners, intermediate, and high intermediate. Findings showed that more advanced English as a Foreign Language learners had a significantly higher pronunciation accuracy on the production of the allomorphs, /t/ and /d/. Their error rate on these two allomorphs was as low as 9% and 8%, respectively. Concerning the /əd, ɪd/ allomorph, no significant differences were found among proficiency levels. These results were interpreted in view of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) and the Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (Major & Kim, 1996). The trends in the data definitely suggested support for the Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis which postulates that markedness by itself cannot explain the development of L2 learners as they improve their L2 proficiency level. This study offers implications for the teaching of the three phonological realizations of the -ed past tense inflection.

Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis, Markedness Theory, Universal Grammar and Monitor Theory and their Contributions to Second Language Learning

Theories of second language acquisition (SLA) play an important role in second language (L2) learning. These theories can help both language teachers and their students to understand L2 language learning process. There are various theories and approaches of SLA which try to explain how L2 learning takes place. Each theory accounts for L2 acquisition from a different perspective. This paper describes and compares five theories of L2 acquisition: Contrastive Analysis (CA), Error Analysis (EA), Markedness Theory, Universal Grammar (UG) and Monitor Theory, explains their contributions to L2 learning and shows the criticism of each theory. First, in Contrastive Analysis, the weak and strong hypotheses and types of language transfer are explained. Second, in Error Analysis, attitudes towards errors and aims, process and models of Error Analysis are described. Third, in Markedness Theory, the role of typological markedness in the explanation of L2 learning, the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) and the Structural Conformity Hypothesis (SCH) are explained. Fourth, in Universal Grammar, it is shown that L2 acquisition occurs on the basis of first language (L1) acquisition: L2 acquisition is a matter of setting the correct L2 parameters. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and L2 access to UG are explained. Finally, in Monitor Theory, it is suggested that comprehensible input is crucial for L2 acquisition and the five hypotheses of the theory are explained: (a) The Input Hypothesis, (b) The Learning-Acquisition Hypothesis, (c) The Monitor Hypothesis, (d) The Natural Order Hypothesis and (e) The Affective Filter Hypothesis.

English

This research examined how Thai undergraduates acquired English marked and unmarked fricatives in their interlanguage. It also determined what sounds the learners used to replace some fricatives and how variable they were. Based on the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH), unmarked fricatives are /s/ and /f/, and marked ones are /ʃ/, /v/, /z/, /θ/, /ð/, and /ʒ/. The former are considered unmarked because they are available in Thai, whereas the latter are not. The participants included three groups: high, intermediate, and low proficiency students who were studied through three types of tasks: word list, sentence list, and oral interview. The word and sentence lists required the learners to produce the target fricatives in a formal situation, while the oral interview in a natural context. The results demonstrated that marked fricatives /v/, /z/, /θ/, /ð/, and /ʒ/ were difficult for the participants. Only the advanced informants could acquire unmarked /s/ and /f/ as well as marked /ʃ/ both initially and finally. According to the MDH, the learners produced /s/, /f/, and /ʃ/ before marked /v/, /z/, /θ/, /ð/, and /ʒ/. They also appeared to produce various substitutions for the problematic sounds. Plausible explanations to account for the Thai learners’ difficulty of English fricatives involve the first language (L1) transfer, distribution of a particular sound, voicing, systematic variability, and design of a task. In pronunciation classes, teachers or educators may design tasks appropriate for their learners and employ strategies that suit their learning style preferences. Keywords: English fricatives; interlanguage; L2 phonology; markedness; variability DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2017-2301-02

Markedness Approach to the Production of English Consonant Clusters Among the Libyan Arabic Speakers of English

The study was conducted at the Language Centre of Misurata University, to investigate the ‘markedness’ effect of articulating CCC clusters in onset, and CC, CCC clusters in coda, among Libyan speakers of English. Eckman’s ‘Markedness Differential Hypothesis’ was employed as a theoretical framework to investigate the problem. The instruments used were a list of words containing the target consonant clusters, and unstructured interviews of the participants. 20 students, all studying at the intermediate level at Misurata University Language Centre, participated in the study. The speech samples were analyzed to identify the difficulty of pronouncing the target clusters, and their deviation in Libyans’ English speech. The CCC clusters in the onset and both CC and CCC in coda were the most difficult sounds to articulate. The answer to the research questions was clear that the Libyan speakers of English do have difficulty in articulating the complex consonant clusters because of their absence in their L1. The results of the study clearly prove and support markedness hypothesis. Some recommendations have been made to improve the pronunciation in the areas identified in the present study.

Application of Computer Software in Analyzing Sound Acquisition in Modern Standard Chinese

E-Prime is a suite of applications to fulfill researchers’ computerized experiment needs. Praat is a free software program for the analysis of speech in phonetics with which phoneticians can analyze, synthesize, and manipulate speech. SPSS is a software program which can be used for doing statistical analysis of the collected data. These computer software programs are applied in the present study which aims to explore the consonant acquisition of Putonghua (Modern Standard Chinese) by native speakers of Uyghur. The difficulty hierarchy of the Chinese consonants for the Uyghur learners of Chinese is found out through the perception experiment. The results of the experiment support the Markedness Differential Hypothesis. In addition, it shows that the second language speech acquisition is influenced by both the first and also the target language phonological system. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i8.3146

Phonetic and Phonological Factors in the Second Language Production of Phonemes and Phonotactics

AbstractThe study of second language (L2) speech production has been informed by research in a number of areas, including phonological theory, acoustic phonetics, and articulatory phonetics. A synthesis of the research in these areas is presented in this paper. First, early theories about ‘foreign accents’ that have continued to influence current research are discussed, including the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis and interlanguage. Next, we turn to the acquisition of consonants and vowels, which has been the subject of both experimental and theoretical investigations. The last section examines the acquisition of suprasegmental structure, such as syllables, phonotactics, and prosodic position. Several theories that elucidate the relative contributions of first language transfer and universal markedness are presented, such as the Markedness Differential Hypothesis and Optimality Theory. Both phonetic and phonological aspects of L2 production are considered in light of data from learners at all stages of language acquisition, from cross‐language speech production studies which may reflect the initial state of language learning to proficient L2 speakers.

Markiertheitsthese und fremdsprachliche Rezeption am Beispiel slavischer Sprachen

The topic of this paper is Eckman’s “Markedness Differential Hypothesis” and its application to Second as well as to Third and Additional Language Acquisition. Its aim is to predict the occurrence of difficulties and the probability of transfer phenomena during the acquisition process on the basis of differences in markedness between the languages in question. Therefore, it relates the notion of difficulty to order of acquisition. The hypothesis proposed in this paper, however, claims, that in order to predict difficulty, it is not sufficient to solely consider the direction of acquisition. As will be shown, the direction of language processing (production or reception of foreign language utterances) plays a major role, too. The paper gives some evidence from a cross-linguistic comprehension test between different Slavic languages, that may prove the different relation of markedness and difficulty in reception tasks.

An investigation into Cantonese ESL learners' acquisition of English initial consonant clusters

This article discusses the acquisition of English initial consonant clusters by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong with an aim to examine the explanatory power of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) (Eckman, Language Learning 27: 315–330, 1977) and the Interlanguage Structural Conformity Hypothesis (ISCH) (Eckman, Moravcsik & Wirth, Language Learning 39: 173–205, 1989) and to gain insights into the interlanguage phonology of the learners. Both hypotheses make predictions about second language learning on the basis of implicational universals, but the former is also premised on the differences between the native and target languages. The study investigated Cantonese ESL learners' acquisition of English obstruent + nasal onsets and obstruent + liquid onsets as well as their acquisition of two-member onsets and three-member onsets. A total of twelve learners participated in the study. They were asked to perform four different speech tasks including the reading of a word list, the description of a series of pictures using isolated words, the reading of three passages, and a conversational interview. The participants' speech was recorded using a high-quality mini-disk recorder and transcribed by two raters. The results of the study show that the implicational relationships which hold between the different categories of onset clusters also hold for the interlanguages of the participants, and the predictions of the MDH and the ISCH are also borne out. Where no universal markedness relationships exist among different onset clusters, the inherent difficulty of a segment resulting from the phonotactic constraints of a learner's mother tongue remains the most important factor contributing to the overall level of difficulty of an onset cluster. It is also argued that, in the interlanguages of the participants, there exists a phonological rule which neutralizes liquids in clusters. Further research is needed to investigate the abilities of Cantonese ESL learners to perceive English speech sounds and the possible effects that their perceptual abilities may have on their production abilities.

Integrating articulatory constraints into models of second language phonological acquisition

ABSTRACTModels such as Eckman's markedness differential hypothesis, Flege's speech learning model, and Brown's feature-based theory of perception seek to explain and predict the relative difficulty second language (L2) learners face when acquiring new or similar sounds. In this paper, we test their predictive adequacy as concerns native English speakers’ mastery of French /ʁ/ and Spanish /ɾ/. Based on an acoustic analysis of the learner data, we demonstrate that these three models do not account for the full range of variability nor for the developmental sequences attested, because they do not consider the degree of difficulty involved in the simultaneous mastery of multiple phonetic parameters across prosodic positions. Consequently, models of L2 phonological acquisition must not only integrate findings from markedness theory and speech perception but also incorporate phonetic constraints on production.

Transfer and Linguistic Context in the Learning Process of English Negative Structures

This study looks at two areas related to the theory of linguistic transfer in L2 acquisition (Lado 1957; Odlin 1989): the context in which acquisition takes place, and the role of the learning strategy called avoidance. To this purpose the development of acquisition of the English negation system by Spanish EFL Students was compared with the findings of Cancino et al. (1978) by using measurement system based on Eckman’s (1985) Markedness Differential Hypothesis. Our results show that the different contexts in which acquisition took place lead to different uses of transfer and different sequences in the acquisitional stages which learners go through. Avoidance also seems to be a strategy which must be seriously taken into account in any evaluation of the role of transfer.

PROFILING THE PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES SHAPING THE FOSSILISED IL OF ADULT SPANISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE. SOME THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS.

In the ever-growing literature dealing with the acquisition by adults of the phonetics and phonology of a foreign language (FL), research has tried to provide an answer to the complex nature of cross-language transfer. The fact that despite idiosyncratic differences and sociolinguistic variation most adults learners of a foreign language (FL) speak with an accent which is a reflection of their native language (NL) and that their progress is impaired at a certain stage prompted a host of questions such as whether adults follow identical or different paths of development in their approach to a foreign language, whether those speaking the same native language are able to identify target language categories in the same way, whether perception and production are interdependent, the nature of the learning abilities and the interplay of transfer with universals. These and other problems relating to foreign language speech have been approached from different angles and theoretical frameworks (see Leather & James (1 99 1) for an overview, and more recently Leather (1999). The research reported here, based on the oral production of sixty-five Spanish adult learners of English as a FL, tries to shed some light on one of well-known problems related to the acquisition of a foreign language by non-native speakers: the analysis of different types of phonological processes shaping the fossilised interlanguage (IL) of adult FL learners in order to see a) whether they are adhered to by those adult learners sharing identical L1; b) whether frozen IL reflects transfer from the leamer's L1 or is the result of developmental (Le. universal) processes. In this connection we(1987) and SimilarityIDifferential Rate Hypothesis (1999) or Ekman's Markedness Differential Hypothesis (1977) and Structural Conformity Hypothesis in connection with some of the processes under analysis. Optimality Theory will be brought in in dealing with some problems encountered under Cluster Simplification. Ultimately, we shall try to explain why adult speakers of a language like Spanish tend to identi@ target categories in much the same way without necessarily having to resort in all cases to language universals as decisive factors shaping their IL. shall examine the extent to which the leamers' IL reflects the alleged tendency to reduce complex syllabic margins to a Universal Canonical Syllable Structure (UCSS). We shall also discuss the explanatory power of some universal phonological models like Major's Ontogeny Model