LIPPS · Literacy’s influence on the production and perception of speech

Literacy’s influence on the production and perception of speech

This project investigated the effect of word spellings (orthography) on the ability of bilinguals and monolinguals to produce and perceive speech sounds in their second or a foreign language (L2). Bilinguals often produce and perceive speech differently from monolinguals, and previous research identified several factors contributing to bilinguals’ success in producing and perceiving L2 sounds. These factors include the similarity between languages, the age at which they start learning the L2 and its context of use. Despite the prominence of orthography in daily life – and especially in foreign language classrooms – its influence on L2 production and perception is not well understood. Some previous studies found learning the written forms of words has a positive effect on L2 production and perception, while others found it has a negative effect. It therefore remains unclear whether orthography helps or hinders L2 speech production and perception. This project systematically addressed whether orthography affects fine-grained phonetic detail in L2 speech production and perception, and thus contributes to foreign accentedness. I investigated this question in two studies which were each composed of several experiments. Study 1 focused on the initial stages of novel sound learning using controlled artificial language learning tasks. Here, monolingual Spanish-speaking participants were taught two novel sounds in the laboratory: the /y/-vowel (e.g., of the French word ‘sud’ (south)) and the /ɛ/-vowel (e.g., of the French word ‘est’ (east)). I tested whether mismatches between sounds and letters in Spanish – the participants’ native language (L1) – and the artificial language affected how participants learned to produce and perceive these new sounds. Study 2 focused on highly proficient bilinguals who learned the L2 in childhood. Here, I tested whether different sounds represented by the same letter in the L1 and L2 affect how adult bilinguals produce and perceive L2 speech sounds when they had acquired the L2 sound system before learning to read and write. These studies are theoretically important because widely used models of bilinguals’ speech production and perception do not consider orthography. Once the role of orthography on L2 production and perception has been identified, it is crucial to incorporate orthography into these models to advance the research field and to deliver practical ways to improve foreign language teaching. The practical implications of this project are of utmost relevance to policy makers, educators and foreign language learners in general. Advancing the current understanding of the impact of orthography on language learning will enable policy makers and educators to improve teaching strategies and curricula, for example, by specifically focusing on differences in sound-spelling relationships between the L1 and L2. Foreign language learners in general will then benefit from these improved teaching strategies and curricula, as they may lead to better foreign language skills.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз