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Part of
Innovative Approaches to Research in Hispanic Linguistics: Regional, diachronic, and learner profile variation
Edited by Sara Fernández Cuenca, Tiffany Judy and Lauren Miller
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 38] 2023
► pp. 225–247

Chapter 10
L2 sociolinguistic perception of stylistic variation

Attitudes toward two variable linguistic features of Spanish

| Roanoke College

There is growing interest in using experimental perception tasks to study the sociolinguistic competence of second language learners. Previous studies on L2 attitudes and perception have largely focused on single linguistic variants presented in guises with limited social context. This chapter reports on a study that explores the L2 sociolinguistic perception of stylistic variation in Spanish. L2 learner participants (n = 108) completed a matched-guise task in which they evaluated digitally manipulated audio guises containing the variable reduction of [paɾa] to [pa] and the variable weakening of coda /s/. The guises were rated according to social attractiveness and social superiority. Linear mixed-effects modeling selected speaker voice, linguistic variables, and experience with linguistic courses as significant factors in predicting the attitudinal responses.

Keywords: sociolinguistics, matched-guise, SLA, attitudes, style, variation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of literature
    • 2.1Stylistic variation and social meaning
    • 2.2Second language communicative competence
    • 2.3L2 attitudes and sociolinguistic perception in Spanish
    • 2.4Spanish coda /s/-weakening
    • 2.5Reduction of [paɾa] to [pa]
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methods
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Tasks and procedures
      • 4.2.1Spanish matched-guise task
      • 4.2.2Proficiency measure and background questionnaire
    • 4.3Statistical analysis
  • 5.Results
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 7 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.38.10mic
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