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PHONETIC APPROXIMATION IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 1
Author(s) -
Flege James Emil
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00154.x
Subject(s) - interlanguage , linguistics , voice , psychology , phonetics , contrast (vision) , arabic , first language , acoustic phonetics , computer science , artificial intelligence , philosophy
This instrumental study of the phonetic contrast between English /ptk/ and /bdg/ produced by Saudi Arabians reveals that native‐language phonetic norms may carry over to production of target‐language sounds. Despite the existence of phonetic interference, however, the present cross‐sectional study suggests that Saudi learners gradually approximate the phonetic norms of English, at least insofar as several temporal acoustic correlates of stop voicing are concerned. The Saudis' English speech, although not typically Arabic or English in phonetic terms, seems to be the product of a fairly stable interlanguage phonetic system which admits the possibility of phonetic strategies by individual speakers.