Foreign Language Learners Acquire L2 Phonetic Detail: Goose and Foot Fronting in Non-Native English

Šárka Šimáčková; Václav Jonáš Podlipský

doi:10.1515/rela-2017-0022

Authors

Šárka Šimáčková Palacký University Olomouc
Václav Jonáš Podlipský

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/rela-2017-0022

Keywords:

back-vowel fronting, fine phonetic detail, FOOT vowel, foreign language learning, GOOSE vowel, second language phonology

Abstract

Whether late learners discern fine phonetic detail in second-language (L2) input, form new phonetic categories, and realize them accurately remains a relevant question in L2 phonology, especially for foreign-language (FL) learning characterized by limited exposure to interactional native input. Our study focuses on advanced Czech learners’ production of the L2 English vowels GOOSE and FOOT. While English /u/ and /ʊ/ have been undergoing fronting, their Czech equivalents, /uː/ and /u/, are fully back. We show that although the spectral differentiation of /u/-/ʊ/ is smaller in the learners’ than in native speech, the vowels being contrasted primarily in length, even FL learners can shift their L2 sound categories towards native-like targets, or in this case, produce English /u/-/ʊ/ as fronted.

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