Learners' views on the acquisition of an L2 phonetic system

Jasone Cenoz & M. Luisa García Lecumberri.

University of the Basque Country

Introduction

The acquisition of the phonetic/phonological component in a second language is a complex and dynamic process which is influenced by the context and conditions in which the language is learned. Affective and social factors as well as individual aptitude have been seen as possible predictors of second language phonetic performance (Flege, 1987; Schneiderman, Bourdages & Champagne, 1988). The ability to mimic and contact with native speakers have also been reported as having a significant influence on second language pronunciation (Suter, 1976; Purcell & Suter, 1980; Thompson, 1991). Specific phonetic training has generally been found to be positively associated with phonetic development in a second language (Neufeld & Schneiderman, 1980; Cenoz & G.Lecumberri, in press) whereas other factors such as attitudinal and motivational variables have sometimes -though not always- proved to be influential (Thompson, 1991).

English segmentals and suprasegmentals present important differences as compared to Spanish. The Spanish vowel system includes a much smaller number of phonemes and Spanish learners of English tend to neutralise some of the distinctions amongst English vowels (Flege, Munro & Fox, 1994; Fox, Flege & Munro, 1995). The English consonant sounds and suprasegmentals also present difficulties for native speakers of Spanish (Flege & Eefting 1987; Flege & Bohn, 1989).

This study investigates the awareness of Spanish speakers who learn English as a FL of the difficulty and importance of the phonetic/phonological system of English for language learners and their beliefs towards the acquisition of this system.

Method

Data were obtained by means of a questionnaire which was completed by 86 first year university students enrolled in an English Philology course and who had studied English as a school subject in secondary school.

Using the SPSS program, we calculated means and standard deviations corresponding to awareness of difficulty, awareness of importance and beliefs about influential factors.

Results

Table 1 shows the results corresponding to the learners' awareness of the difficulty of English segmentals (vowels and consonants) and suprasegmentals (stress and intonation).

The mean scores indicate that learners are aware of the difficulty of English segmentals, suprasegmentals and different accents. The results also indicate that learners find English vowels more difficult than consonants, stress or intonation. Intonation is perceived as more difficult than stress and consonants.

Table 2 shows the results corresponding to awareness of the importance of segmentals and suprasegmentals for comprehension and production. The scores for vowels are higher than for consonants or suprasegmentals and the mean scores for segmentals are higher than for suprasegmentals. Therefore, learners seem to be more aware of the importance of segmentals both as far as comprehension and production are concerned.

Table 3 shows the results for learners’ beliefs about the factors that influence the acquisition of the English phonetic system.

These mean scores indicate that students believe that the most important factors affecting the development of phonetic competence are related to contact with native speakers. Specifically, they refer to visits to English speaking countries (COUNTRY) and interaction with native speakers (NATIVE) which received very high scores. Learners also believe that ear training exercises (EAR TRAINING), listening to the radio and TV (RADIO/TV) and individual motivation (MOTIVATION) can improve their pronunciation. Other factors that are also considered important are general proficiency in English (PROFICIENCY), doing written phonetic transcription exercises (TRANSCRIPTION) and having a musical ear (MUSICAL EAR). The factors that are believed to be less important are studying phonetic theory (PHONETIC THEORY), non-phonetically-based pronunciation training (TRAINING/NOT PHONETIC), knowledge of other languages (OTHER LANGS.) and the ability to mimic (MIMIC).

Discussion

In general terms, we can state that all participants are aware of the difficulty of English pronunciation. This awareness may be partly caused by the important differences between the English phonetic system and the Spanish system both at the segmental and suprasegmental levels. Learners seem to be aware of these differences and not only at the segmental level but also at the suprasegmental level, in particular in the case of intonation. Vowels are considered more difficult than consonants and intonation is reported to be more difficult than consonants and stress. Therefore, we can state that learners are aware of the difficulty of acquiring the English phonetic system and they are also aware of the specific difficulty associated with vowels and intonation.

The whole sound system is rated as important for comprehension and production by learners and this finding confirms the trend observed in other contexts by Nunan (1988) and Stevick (1982). Nevertheless, our results do not seem to confirm the most prominent role of suprasegmentals as compared to segmentals (Hyde, 1994) because participants consider segmentals more important than suprasegmentals. The results also reveal that segmentals and suprasegmentals are considered to be more important for production than for comprehension. These results are compatible with the idea that the phonetic component not only plays an important role when encoding or decoding a message but that it includes other information that is more salient in production than in comprehension such as personality traits, geographical and social origin or even proficiency in the second language in the case of non-native speakers.

Participants believe that the best way to acquire phonetic competence is to establish contact with native speakers of the language or to be in contact with the mass media. These results confirm previous findings on learners' awareness because an authentic linguistic environment is believed to be the best way to improve one's pronunciation (Chryshichoos, 1991). Learners also believe that specific phonetic training plays an important role in the acquisition of phonetics and this confirms previous findings on the role of phonetic training (Cenoz & G. Lecumberri, in press). In contrast, the fact that the learners do not consider the ability to mimic important for the acquisition of English phonetics does not support previous findings (Suter, 1976; Purcell & Suter, 1980; Thompson, 1991).

Even though more research studies are needed in order to confirm the trends observed in this study, the results presented here provide information about awareness and beliefs in second language acquisition of pronunciation. The study of learners' awareness and beliefs is an important area of second language acquisition research not only because it provides information about the learners but also because these elements can affect the process of language acquisition (Wenden 1986; Chryshochoos, 1991).

References

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