ORTHOGRAPHIC EFFECTS ON PRONUNCIATION OF NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH LEARNING GERMAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Irina Konstantinova LING 620 Ohio University

Research area Second language acquisition Cross-linguistic influence Orthographic transfer

Aim/Justification Many studies have focused on investigating orthographic effects of L1 on L2 spelling and reading The research area of orthography effects on L2 production has been somewhat neglected and insufficiently investigated

References Jarvis, S., & Pavlenko, A. (2008). Cross-linguistic influence in language and cognition. New York: Routledge (pp , 52-54) Odlin, T. (1989). Language transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambirdge: Cambridge University Press. Hayes-Harb, R., Nicol, J., & Barker, J. (2010). Learning the phonological forms of new words: Effects of orthographic and auditory input. Language and Speech, 53(3), Bassetti, B. (2006). Orthographic input and phonological representations in learners of Chinese as a foreign language. Written Language & Literacy, 9(1), Piske, T. (2008). Phonetic awareness, phonetic sensitivity and the second language learner. In J. Cenoz and N.H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2 nd edition, Knowledge about language, 6,

Research questions 1. Is orthographic transfer statistically present in the sample? 2. Do results vary and are they statistically significant between different proficiency levels? 3. Does cognate and non-cognate status of words lead to the reliance of L1 sound-letter correspondences in L2 production? 4. To what extent variables such as age, motivation, and foreign language settings contribute to orthographic transfer?

Methodology Subjects/Sources About 45 undergraduates students of Ohio University enrolled in 100, 200, and 300 levels of German as a foreign language 100 level- beginner level 200 level- intermediate level 300 level – advanced level All students are native speakers of English

Methodology Materials/instruments An adapted German text comprised of targeted sounds These sounds will be met at least twice in the text in random order A set of cognates and non-cognates will also be included for comparison A short questionnaire

Inventory of targeted sounds Sounds are similar, letters are different German grapheme-phoneme correspondences English grapheme-phoneme correspondences 1 ˂ w ˃ maps to [v] ˂ v ˃ maps to [v] 2 ˂ v ˃, ˂ f ˃ map to [f] ˂ v ˃ maps to [v], ˂ f ˃ maps to [f] 3 ˂ s ˃ maps to [z] ˂ s ˃ maps to [s], ˂ z ˃ maps to [z] 4 ˂ s ˃ followed by ˂ p,t ˃ maps to [ ʃ ] ˂ s ˃ followed by ˂ h ˃ maps to [ ʃ ] 5 ˂ tsch ˃ maps to [t ʃ ] ˂ tch ˃, ˂ ch ˃ map to [t ʃ ] 6 ˂ sch ˃ maps to [ ʃ ] ˂ sh ˃ maps to [ ʃ ] ˂ -tion ˃ maps to [zion] ˂ -tion ˃ maps to [ ʃ n]

Methodology Procedure 1. Pre-selection of students before actual data collection to ensure that German is their second language and not third one 2. Administration of the questionnaire 3. The adapted text will be read aloud by students and audio recorded in the computer lab 4. Each student will be recorded individually

Methodology Data & Analysis Data will consist of measures and responses provided by the participants on both reading and conversational tasks Data will be aggregated and analyzed quantitatively

Anticipated problems/limitations of the study Small sample size Lack of a comparison group with L1 unrelated to German language

Expected findings Orthographic transfer will be present in the entire group The results will vary across the proficiency levels The effect of orthography will be more pronounced in the beginning group as opposed to advanced group Similar results are expected when analyzing production of cognates vs. non-cognates