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Second‐Language Accent: The Relationship Between Discrimination and Perception in Acquisition *
Author(s) -
Schneiderman Eta,
Bourdages Johanne,
Champagne Cécile
Publication year - 1988
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.1467-1770.1988.tb00399.x
Subject(s) - psychology , stress (linguistics) , prosody , perception , second language acquisition , first language , linguistics , test (biology) , phonetics , production (economics) , cognitive psychology , paleontology , philosophy , macroeconomics , neuroscience , economics , biology
This paper reports on a study which measures the relationship between the discrimination and production of segmental and prosodic elements in a second language. The measures employed in the study also served to assess the effects of a phonetic training program for French as a second language designed by the authors. Two questions are addressed in the present study: 1) Is there a systematic relationship between perception and production of the sound system in a second language? 2) What effect does a period of systematic discrimination training in the second language have on this relationship? The measures employed included tests of discrimination and production for French phones, rhythm, and prosody. The subjects' production test results were judged by highly trained, native speakers of French. Subjects for the study included a treated group which had undergone the phonetic training program and an untreated group which had not. Both groups were simultaneously enrolled in French as a second language courses. Testing took place prior to the start of the French courses and at the end of the semester immediately after they had finished. Although the results of the study indicate that discrimination ability initially exceeds production ability, they also suggest that explicit training may disrupt this relationship.