GABRIELLA RUIZ LING 620 OHIO UNIVERSITY Cross-language perceptual assimilation of French and German front rounded vowels by novice American listeners and advanced American language learners of French and German

Research Area Phonology - Cross-Linguistic Influence - Psycholinguistics

Aim/Justification Several Studies have investigated the role of L1 phonological influence over L2 speech sound correspondences in L2 learning Support that gained experience in a language alters the perception of speech sounds in that language. Only within the last year have a few studies investigated the role of L2 phonological influence over L3 speech perception, mainly by default.

References Flege, J. E. (1987). The production of "new" and "similar" phones in a foreign language:evidence for the effect of equivalence classification. Journal of phonetics, Ingram,J. C.L.,& Park, S. ( 1997). Cross-Language vowel perception and production by Japanese and Korean learners of English. Journal of Phonetic, 25, Levy, E.S., & Strange, W. (2008). Perception of French Vowels by American English adults with and without French language experience. Journal of Phonetics, 36, Trofimovich, P., Gatbonton, E., & Segalowitz, N. (2007) A Dynamic Look AtL2 Phonological Learning: Seeking Processing Explanations for Implicational Phenomena. Studies in Second language Acquisition, Strange, W., Levy, E.S., Law II, F.F. (2009). Cross-language categorization of French and German vowels by naïve American listeners. Acoustical Society of America, 126, ( ).

Research Questions  Do L1 listeners realize featured phones between two non- native languages as being the same phoneme?  Does gained experience in the language affect the participant’s phonological perception of the TL(s)?  Do advanced learners of German and French assimilate rounded vowels the same way?

Methodology Subjects participants Naïve/novice participants do not need to be enrolled at Ohio University Advanced language participants are Ss of 300 level French and German classes. - All participant are native speakers of American English.

Materials/Instruments Sound files of German and French high/mid front rounded and unrounded vowels, generated by generic voice synthesizer. Cloze builder to test proficiency levels (Trofimovich & Gatbonton, 2007) Ohio University Computer Lab (computer & headphones; projector & screen) Microsoft PowerPoint Print out of “saving” instructions. Slips of paper with #’s, set by computer.

Target sounds /i, y, y:,Y,/ Sound correspondence sounds /i, ɪ, u, ʊ, ə / Non-words: / h _ b ə / /t _ b ə /  /#V#/ /CV/ /CVC/

Methodology Procedure 1.) Cloze builder assessment (tentative) 2.) Training 3.) Tasks: a.) isolated sounds (randomized) b.) monosyllabic non-words (randomized) c.) same/different (randomized) * 4.) Save tests to desktop (Tell me what you think for tasks 1 & 2)

Methodology Data & Analysis mean proficiency levels of TLs for each group will be determined. Responses will be scored as the number of times respondents from each independent group choose the American English vowel for each task item. For group analysis, an overall categorization distributions (60 participants x 45 trials=2700 responses/vowel). The consistency of item choice for each category will be represented as a percentage of the total trial. A median response item will be determined for those groups that chose an alternative item(s). To account for individual responses, each participant’s American vowel selection for the German or French vowels will be tallied.

methodology Data & Analysis Continued ANOVA will be used initially to find a mean score for the naïve/novice American English participant responses, and the mean total of same responses for the advanced language learners final analysis will employ a statistical regression analysis. multiple linear regression model

Anticipated Problems & limitations Technology mishaps (wav. files vs. Bit files) Accessibility to participants Sample size Cloze builder

Expected Findings participants in the advanced German and French groups will assimilate the French and German vowels in the same way expect many respondents from both groups making opposite responses for /y, Y/ vowels; that is where the German/Y/ vowel occurs, the AE advanced German language learners will respond the same AE vowel as they do for the French /y/ AE advanced French language learners, I expect these participants to respond the same for both /y:/ and /Y/ vowels. naïve/novice L1 AE participants, I expect assimilation responses to be different from advanced language learners of target languages