Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T09:31:16.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identity Markers and L2 Pronunciation1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Jane Zuengler
Jane Zuengler
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This is a report of a study of social marking in second language pronunciation. In particular, it tested out Trudgill's (1981) suggestion that sounds that are most likely to undergo sociolinguistic variation, that is, that may become social markers, are those that Labov (1972a, 1972b), calls stereotypes. This study sought to determine whether there were certain aspects of English pronunciation that native Spanish speakers would, at some level of awareness, associate with American English/American identity. The speakers were asked to perform several tasks, including a mimic of an American speaking Spanish with an American accent (following Flege & Hammond, 1982). Among the results, speakers displayed a tacit awareness of English-Spanish sound distinctions (in particular, allophonic differences) in performing the mimic (supporting Flege & Hammond, 1982). Additionally, some of the alterations they were very conscious of held as stereotypes of American English. Support was found for Trudgill's (1981) suggestion.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 33 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Anisman, P. H. (1975). Some aspects of code switching in New York Puerto Rican English. Bilingual Review, 2, 56–85.Google Scholar
Beebe, L. M. (1977). The influence of the listener on code-switching. Language Learning, 27, 331–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beebe, L. M. (1980). Sociolinguistic variation and style shifting in second language acquisition. Language Learning, 30, 433–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beebe, L. M. (1981). Social and situational factors affecting the communicative strategy of dialect code-switching. Language Learning, 32, 139–149.Google Scholar
Beebe, L. M. (1983). Examining transfer with a sociolinguistic model. Paper presented at the Second Language Research Forum, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, D. (1986). The relationship between perceived cultural empathy and speech accommodation in second language: A phonological analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
Brennan, E. M., & Brennan, J. S. (1981a). Accent scaling and language attitudes: Reactions to Mexican American English speech. Language and Speech, 24, 207–221.Google Scholar
Brennan, E. M., & Brennan, J. S. (1981b). Measurements of accent and attitude toward Mexican-American speech. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 10, 487–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, E. M., Ryan, E. B., & Dawson, W. E. (1975). Scaling of apparent accentedness by magnitude estimation and sensory modality matching. Journal of Psycholingiistic Research, 4, 27–36.Google Scholar
Carranza, M. Z. (1982). Attitudinal research on Hispanic language varieties. In Ryan, E. B. & Giles, H. (Eds.), Attitudes towards language variation (pp. 63–83). London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Dickerson, L. J. (1974). Internal and external patterning of phonological variability in the speech of Japanese learners of English: Toward a theory of second-language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Dowd, J. L. (1984). Phonological variation in L2 speech: The effects of emotional questions and field-dependence/field-independence on second language performance. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982). Language two. New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Eisenstein, M. R. (1979). The development of dialect discrimination and stereotyping in adult learners of English as a second language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, City University of New York.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E. (1984). The detection of French accent by American listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 76, 692–707.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., & Hammond, R. M. (1982). Mimicry of nondistinctive phonetic differences between language varieties. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 5, 1–17.Google Scholar
Gatbonton, E. (1975). Systematic variations in second language speech: A Sociolinguistic study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, McGill University, Montreal.Google Scholar
Giles, H., Scherer, K. R., & Taylor, D. M. (1979). Speech markers in social interaction. In Scherer, K. R. & Giles, H. (Eds.), Social markers in speech (pp. 343–381). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hartford, B. S. (1978). Phonological differences in the English of adolescent female and male Mexican-Americans. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 17, 55–64.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972a). The study of language in its social context. In Giglioli, P. P. (Ed.), Language and social context (pp. 283–307). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972b). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Pennington, M. C., & Richards, J. C. (1986). Pronunciation revisited. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 207–226.Google Scholar
Preston, D. R. (in press). Talking black and talking white: Two studies in the ethnic ethnography of speaking. Midwestern Journal of Language and Folklore.Google Scholar
Purcell, E. T., & Suter, R. W. (1980). Predictors of pronunciation accuracy: A reexaminaron. Language Learning, 30, 271–288.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. W. (1977). Sociolinguistic variation and language transfer in phonology. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 12, 79–95.Google Scholar
Sebastian, R. J., & Ryan, E. B. (1985). Speech cues and social evaluation: Markers of ethnicity, social class, and age. In Giles, H. & St. Clair, R. N. (Eds.), Recent advances in language, communication, and social psychology (pp. 112–143). London: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Stevick, E. W. (1982). Teaching and learning languages. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stockwell, R. P., & Bowen, J. D. (1965). The sounds of English and Spanish. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Swacker, M. (1977). Attitudes of native and non-native speakers toward varieties of American English. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University, College Station.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1981). Linguistic accommodation: Sociolinguistic observations on a sociopsychological theory. Papers from the parasession on language and behavior, Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zuengler, J. (1982). Applying accommodation theory to variable performance data m L2. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 4, 181–192.Google Scholar
Zuengler, J. (1985). The effect of induced and perceived expertise on the language performance of native and nonnative speakers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar