Schedule StuTS 65

Within the realm of second language acquisition research, many studies point towards the existence of a critical period which is said to impede the acquisition of native-like pronunciation performance for L2 learners older than 12-15 due to multiple factors such as the development of the brain and the manifestation of phonological categories of the L1. Though some researchers promote the idea that external factors such as motivation or exposure to the target language can lead to even late learners being able to perform on a native-like level (Dewaele 2013: 161; Moyer 2013: 1).
In this quantitative research 34 English students at the University of Osnabrück were recruited and divided into two groups: Group A, composed of 18 students who spent time upwards of four weeks in the US and Group B, composed of 16 students who had never been abroad to an English-speaking country.
The participants’ production of the following three variables of the General American accent was analysed: rhoticity, t-voicing, yod-dropping. Via the comparison between the two groups, I analysed whether the external factor of a SA is able to account for different pronunciation patters among the groups.

The abstract does (as you might be able to tell) not contain specific information on the results of my study; this is due to the rather early stage of my study. During the StuTS, I will be able to present findings.

Info

Day: 2019-05-25
Start time: 15:00
Duration: 00:30
Room: 100 / Hörsaal XIb
Track: Phonetics and Phonology
Language: en

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