Chapter 10
Acquisition of articulatory control or language-specific coarticulatory patterns?
Evidence from the production of laterals in second-language Spanish
The present study examines the acquisition of coarticulatory patterns in Spanish as a second language (L2). Through an acoustic analysis of the production of /l/ preceded by a front vowel and by a back vowel by a large cross-sectional sample of English-speaking learners of Spanish (n = 85) and a comparison of L2 Spanish patterns to those in L1 Spanish (n = 20 speakers) and in L1 English, evidence is provided that, similar to the acquisition of other phonetic detail, acquisition of coarticulation proceeds from more L1-like patterns in early stages of learning toward more targetlike coarticulatory patterns in later stages. Additionally, acquisition of coarticulation does not seem to be tied to overall segmental acquisition.
Article outline
- Introduction
- 1.Background
- 1.1Coarticulation
- 1.2Coarticulation and the lateral
- 1.3Coarticulation in second languages
- 2.Research questions and hypotheses
- 3.Method
- 3.1Participants
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3.2Data elicitation
- 3.3Acoustic analyses
- 3.4Statistical analyses
- 4.Results
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
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Acknowledgements
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Notes
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References
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Appendix