Phonological Issues in Language Learning

The main focus of this timely volume is phonological acquisition or the process of mastering a second language facilitated by guidance and direction. This thematic volume of recent research in the field comes at a time when phonology - always one of the liveliest areas of theoretical linguistic inquiry - is starting to enjoy a much-deserved resurgence of interest and writings within the realm of second-language acquisition. The scope of coverage in this volume includes phonological acquisition as well as requirements of language education where phonology refers not only to linguistically relevant dimensions of speech but related concerns of psychology as well. Second-Language Speech Research: An Introduction (Jonathan Leather).

Part I: Modeling Acquisition.

The Modification of Onsets in a Markedness Relationship: Testing the Interlanguage Structural Conformity Hypothesis (Robert S. Carlisle).

Cantonese Speakers and the Acquisition of French Consonants (W. Cichoki, A. B. House, A. M. Kinloch, and A. C. Lister).

Chronological and Stylistic Aspects of Second Language Acquisition of Consonant Clusters (Roy C. Major).

The Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (Roy C. Major and Eunyi Kim).

Segment Composition as a Factor in the Syllabification Errors of Second-Language Speakers (Ida J. Stockman and Erna Pluut).

Part II: Implications for Instruction.

Bimodal Speech Perception by Nature and Nonnative Speakers of English: Factors Influencing the McGurk Effect (Debra M. Hardison).

Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners (Murray J. Munro and Tracey M. Derwing).

English Ambisyllabic Consonants and Half-Closed Syllables in Language Teaching (Robert L. Trammell).

Index

Jonathan Leather is the author of Phonological Issues in Language Learning: Volume III in the Best of Language Learning series, published by Wiley. The eight studies reproduced here from Language Learning yield insights on a range of questions relating to second-language speech acquisition and learning. Those in Part I are concerned primarily with modeling acquisition, while those in Part II explicitly consider implications of acquisition research for language instruction. The editor’s introductory chapter is an overview of second-language speech research, providing a broader scientific context for these studies and the issues they address.