Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T03:24:41.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Developmental trends and L1 effects in early L2 learners’ onset cluster production*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2012

ANNE-MICHELLE TESSIER ,
TAMARA SORENSON DUNCAN  and
JOHANNE PARADIS
ANNE-MICHELLE TESSIER*
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
TAMARA SORENSON DUNCAN
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
JOHANNE PARADIS
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
*
Address for correspondence: Anne-Michelle Tessier, Department of Linguistics, Assiniboia Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E7, Canada[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study focuses on English onset cluster production in spontaneous speech samples of 10 children aged 5;04–6;09 from Chinese and Hindi/Punjabi first language (L1) backgrounds, each with less than a year of exposure to English. The results suggest commonalities between early second language (L2) learners and both monolingual and adult L2 learners in the location of cluster repair and the sometimes-exceptional treatment of s+stop clusters. We also provide evidence that accuracy rates and repairs used in early L2 cluster production show L1 influences. We conclude that early L2 learners represent a unique learner group, whose study is crucial to the understanding of phonological development.

Keywords

consonant clustersphonologychild second language acquisitionfirst language transfer
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 663 - 681
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

We would like to thank the families for graciously taking the time to participate in this study and for welcoming us into their homes, and the students who assisted with data collection and transcription: Emily Cliff, Philip Dilts, Lisa Elliot, Kristyn Emmerzael, and Dorothy Pinto. We also thank three anonymous reviewers and our editor, Jürgen Meisel, for thorough feedback which substantially improved this paper. We are grateful to the following funding agencies for their financial support of this research: Alberta Innovates Health Solutions (formerly the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, 200800618-2), the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (27061500), Early Child Development Support Services, Edmonton, and the Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research (090415INV) to Johanne Paradis, and the Office of the Vice-President, Research, University of Alberta (4A Research Award) to Anne-Michelle Tessier.

References

Adam, G. (2002). From variable to optimal grammar: Evidence from language acquisition and language change. PhD. dissertation, Tel-Aviv University.Google Scholar
Amastae, J. (1982). Aspects of the bilingual acquisition of English and Spanish. Jounral of the Linguistic Asscociation of the Southwest, 5, 5–19.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. (1987). The markedness differential hypothesis and syllable structure difficulty. In Ioup & Weinberger (eds.), pp. 279–291.Google Scholar
Anderson, R. T. (2004). Phonological acquisition in preschoolers learning a second language via immersion: A longitudinal study. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 18, 183–210.Google Scholar
Aoyama, K., Guion, S., Flege, J. E., Yamada, T., & Akahane-Yamada, R. (2008). The first years in an L2 speaking environment: A comparison of Japanese children and adults learning American English. International Journal of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 46, 61–90.Google Scholar
Bahri, H. (1973). Teach yourself Panjabi. Patiala: Punjabi University.Google Scholar
Baker, W., Trofimovich, P., Flege, J. E., Mack, M., & Halter, R. (2008). Child–adult difference in second language phonological learning: The role of cross-language similarity. Language and Speech, 51 (4), 317–342.Google Scholar
Barlow, J. A. (2001a). The structure of /s/–sequences: Evidence from a disordered system. Journal of Child Language, 28, 291–324.Google Scholar
Barlow, J. A. (2001b). A preliminary typology of initial clusters in acquisition. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 15, 9–13.Google Scholar
Barlow, J. A. (2003) The stop–spirant alternation in Spanish: Converging evidence for a fortition account. Southwest Journal of Linguistics, 22 (1), 51–86.Google Scholar
Barlow, J. A. (2005). Sonority effects in the production of consonant clusters by Spanish-speaking children. In Eddington, D. (ed.), Selected proceedings from the 6th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages, pp. 1–14. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Becker, M., & Tessier, A.M. (2011). Trajectories of faithfulness in child-specific phonology. Phonology, 28, 163–196.Google Scholar
Best, C. (1995). A direct realist view of cross-language speech perception. In Strange (ed.), pp. 171–204.Google Scholar
Bharati, S. (1994). Aspects of the phonology of Hindi and English. New Delhi: Arnold.Google Scholar
Broselow, E. (1983). Nonobvious transfer: On predicting epenthesis errors. In Selinker, L. & Gass, S. (eds.), Language transfer in language learning, pp. 269–280. Amsterdam & Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Broselow, E. (1984). An investigation of transfer in second language phonology. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 22, 253–269. [Reprinted in 1987, in Ioup & Weinberger (eds.), pp. 261–278.]Google Scholar
Broselow, E. (1988). Prosodic phonology and the acquisition of a second language. In Flynn, S. & O'Neil, W. (eds.), Linguistic theory in second language acquisition, pp. 295–308. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Broselow, E., Chen, S. I., & Wang, C. (1998). The emergence of the unmarked in second language phonology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 261–280.Google Scholar
Broselow, E., & Finer, D. (1991). Parameter setting in second language phonology and syntax. Second Language Research, 7, 35–59.Google Scholar
Chambless, D. (2006). Asymmetries in the acquisition of consonant clusters. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.Google Scholar
Chan, A. Y. W. (2010). An investigation into Cantonese ESL learners’ acquisition of English initial consonant clusters. Linguistics, 48, 99–141.Google Scholar
Compton, A. J., & Streeter, M. (1977). Child phonology: Data collection and preliminary analysis. Papers and Reports on Child Language, 13, 99–109.Google Scholar
Davidson, L. (2010). Phonetic bases of similarities in cross-language production: Evidence from English and Catalan. Journal of Phonetics, 38 (2), 272–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duanmu, S. (2000). The phonology of standard Chinese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dunn, L., & Dunn, L. (1997). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (3rd edn., revised). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Eckman, F., & Iverson, G. (1993). Sonority and markedness among onset clusters in the interlanguage of ESL learners. Second Language Research, 9 (3), 234–252.Google Scholar
Edwards, J., Beckman, M. E., & Munson, B. (2004). The interaction between vocabulary size and phonotactic probability effects on children's production accuracy and fluency in nonword repetition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 421–436.Google Scholar
Escudero, P., & Boersma, P. (2004). Bridging the gap between L2 speech perception research and phonological theory. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26, 551–585.Google Scholar
Fabiano-Smith, L., & Barlow, J. A. (2010). Interaction in bilingual phonological acquisition: Evidence from phonetic inventories. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13, 81–97.Google Scholar
Fabiano-Smith, L., & Goldstein, B. (2005). Phonological cross-linguistic effects in bilingual Spanish–English speaking children. Journal of Multilingual Communication Disorders, 3 (1), 56–63.Google Scholar
Fabiano-Smith, L., & Goldstein, B. (2010). Phonological acquisition in bilingual Spanish–English speaking children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 160–178.Google Scholar
Flege, J. (1995). Second-language speech learning: Theory, findings and problems. In Strange (ed.), pp. 233–273.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., Munro, M. J., & MacKay, I. R. A. (1995). Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97, 3125–3134.Google Scholar
Frisch, S. A., Large, N. R., & Pisoni, D. B. (2000). Perception of wordlikeliness: Effects of segment probability and length on processing of nonword sound patterns. Journal of Memory and Language, 42, 481–496.Google Scholar
Gierut, J. A. (2001). Complexity in phonological treatment: Clinical factors. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32, 229–241.Google Scholar
Gierut, J. A. (2007). Phonological complexity and language learnability. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 16, 6–17.Google Scholar
Gildersleeve-Neumann, C. E., Kester, E. S., Davis, B. L., & Peña, E. D. (2008). English speech sound development in preschool-aged children from bilingual English–Spanish environments. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, 314–328.Google Scholar
Gilhool, A., Burrows, L., Goldstein, B., & Paradis, J. (2009, November). English phonological skills of English language learners. Poster presented at the Annual American Speech Language Hearing Association Convention, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Gill, H. S., & Gleason, H. A. (1963). A reference grammar of Panjabi. Hartford, CT: Department of Linguistics, The Hartford Seminary Foundation.Google Scholar
Gnanadesikan, A. (2004). Markedness and faithfulness constraints in child phonology. In Kager et al. (eds.), pp. 73–108. [Ms. circulated in 1995.]Google Scholar
Goad, H. (2012). sC clusters are coda initial. The Linguistics Review, 29 (3), 335–373.Google Scholar
Goad, H., & Rose, Y. (2004). Input elaboration, head faithfulness and evidence for representation in the acquisition of left-edge clusters in West Germanic. In Kager et al. (eds.), pp. 109–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, B. (2004). Phonological development and disorders. In Goldstein, B. (ed.), Bilingual language development and disorders in Spanish–English speakers (1st edn.), pp. 259–285. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.Google Scholar
Goldstein, B., & Washington, P. S. (2001). An initial investigation of phonological patterns in typically-developing 4-year-old Spanish–English bilingual children. Language, Speech and Hearing Sciences, 32, 153–164.Google Scholar
Hall, N. (2002). Gestures and segments: Vowel intrusion as overlap. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.Google Scholar
Hancin-Bhatt, B., & Bhatt, R. M. (1997). Optimal L2 syllables: Interactions of transfer and developmental effects. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 331–378.Google Scholar
Hoff, E. (2009). Language development. (4th edn.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cenpage Learning.Google Scholar
Ingram, D. (1989). First language acquisition: Method, description and explanation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ioup, G., & Weinberger, S. H. (eds.) (1987). Interlanguage phonology: The acquisition of a second language sound system. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Kager, R., Pater, J., & Zonneveld, W. (eds.) (2004). Constraints in phonological acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Karimi, S. (1987). Farsi speakers and the initial consonant cluster in English. In Ioup & Weinberger (eds.), pp. 305–318.Google Scholar
Keshavarz, M., & Ingram, D. (2002). The early phonological development of a Farsi–English bilingual child. International Journal of Bilingualism, 6, 255–269.Google Scholar
Kirk, C., & Demuth, K. (2005). Asymmetries in the acquisition of word-initial and word-final consonant clusters. Journal of Child Language, 32, 709–734.Google Scholar
Kwon, B. Y. (2006). Korean speakers’ production of English consonant clusters: Articulatory and perceptual accounts. Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. P. (ed.) 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the world (16th edn.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. [http://www.ethnologue.com/, accessed April 29, 2012.]Google Scholar
Lléo, C., & Prinz, M. (1996). Consonant clusters in child phonology and the directionality of syllable structure assignment. Journal of Child Language, 23, 31–56.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk (3rd edn.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Major, R. C. (1994). Chronological and stylistic aspects of second language acquisition of consonant clusters. Language Learning, 44, 655–680.Google Scholar
McLeod, S., van Doorn, J., & Reed, V. A. (2001). Normal acquisition of consonant clusters. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10, 99–110.Google Scholar
Mehrota, R. C. (1980). Hindi phonology. Raipur, India: Bhashika Prakashan.Google Scholar
Munson, B. (2001). Phonological pattern frequency and speech production in adults and children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 778–792.Google Scholar
Oh, G. E., Guion-Anderson, S., Aoyama, K., Flege, J. E., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Yamada, T. (2011). A one-year longitudinal study of English and Japanese vowel production by Japanese adults and children in an English-speaking setting. Journal of Phonetics, 39 (2), 156–167.Google Scholar
Ohala, M. (1983). Aspects of Hindi phonology. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Paradis, J. (2007). Second language acquisition in childhood. In Hoff, E. & Shatz, M. (eds.), Handbook of language development, 387–406. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Paradis, J. (2012). Cross-linguistic influence and code-switching. In Goldstein, B. (ed.), Bilingual language development and disorders in Spanish–English speakers (2nd edn.), pp. 73–94. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Paradis, J., Emmerzael, K., & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2010). Assessment of English language learners: Using parent report on first language development. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 474–497.Google Scholar
Paradis, J., Genesee, F., & Crago, M. (2011). Dual language development and disorders: A handbook on bilingualism and second language learning (2nd edn.). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Pater, J. (1996). Consequences of constraint ranking. Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University.Google Scholar
Pater, J., & Barlow, J. A., (2003). Constraint conflict in cluster reduction. Journal of Child Language, 30, 487–526.Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, J. B. (2006). The next toolkit. Journal of Phonetics, 34, 516–530.Google Scholar
Piper, T. (1984a). Observations on the second-language acquisition of the English sound system. Canadian Modern Language Review, 40, 542–551.Google Scholar
Piper, T. (1984b). Phonological processes in ESL five year olds. TESL Canada Journal, 1, 71–80.Google Scholar
Rose, Y. (2000). Headedness and prosodic licensing in the L1 acquisition of phonology. Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University.Google Scholar
Sato, C. J. (1984). Phonological processes in second language acquisition: Another look at interlanguage syllable structure. Language Learning, 34, 43–57.Google Scholar
Schneider, P., Dubé, R. V., & Hayward, D. (2005). The Edmonton narrative norms instrument. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. http://www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca/spa/enni (accessed September 2, 2007).Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. (2004). Why child L2 acquisition? In van Kampen, J. & Baauw, S. (eds.), Proceedings of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Conference 2003 (LOT Occasional Series 3), pp. 47–66. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Singh, R. (1985). Prosodic adaptation in interphonology. Lingua, 67, 269–282.Google Scholar
Smit, A. B. (1993). Phonologic error distributions in the Iowa–Nebraska Articulation Norms Project: Word-initial consonant clusters. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36, 931–947.Google Scholar
Smith, N. V. (1973). The acquisition of phonology: A case study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Snow, C.E. (1987). Relevance of the notion of a critical period to language acquisition. In Bornstein, M. H. (ed.), Sensitive periods in development: Interdisciplinary perspectives, pp. 183–209. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E., & Hoefnagel-Hoehle, M. (1977). Age differences in the pronunciation of foreign sounds. Language and Speech, 20 (4), 357–365.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E., & Hoefnagel-Hoehle, M. (1978). The critical period for language acquisition: Evidence from second language learning. Child Development, 49, 1114–1128.Google Scholar
Sorenson Duncan, T. (2010). Emerging L2 consonant systems and performance on nonword repetition tasks. Msc. thesis, University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Strange, W. (ed.) (1995). Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research. Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Tarone, E. E. (1980). Some influences on the syllable structure of the interlanguage phonology. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 18, 139–152.Google Scholar
Tessier, A.-M. (2007). Biases and stages in phonological acquisition. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.Google Scholar
Unsworth, S. (2005). On the syntax–semantics interface in Dutch: Adult and child L2 acquisition compared. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 42, 173–187.Google Scholar