WITHIN-CATEGORY VARIATION IN L2 ENGLISH VOWEL LEARNING

摘要

Second language (L2) pronunciation research typicallytreats L2 phonological categories as monolithic wholes,without regard for potential within-category variation inlearners' productions. Flege [1] argues that L1 transfer mosteasily occurs when an L2 phoneme has an Ll counterpart ina similar or identical phonetic environment. Some empiricalevidence supports this claim (see [2] & [3]). Other factorsmay also contribute to within-category variation in L2speech. In this study, we examine whether L2 learners aremore apt to accurately produce English vowels 1) whenvowels are in more familiar rather than less familiar wordsand 2) when the learners have access to orthographicrepresentations of those words. We also examine the extentto which the learners' Ll plays a role.