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Article published In:
Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education
Vol. 9:1 (2021) ► pp.112–144

Phonological development in Spanish immersion

A comparison of programmatic context

ORCID logo | University of Minnesota

Studies of lexical and syntactic development in immersion programs are numerous, yet phonological development has received much less attention. This study compares the pronunciation of English home language students in one-way and two-way Spanish immersion programs across three sound classes: voiceless stops, rhotics, and vowels. Learner productions were analyzed acoustically and compared to those of Spanish-English bilingual peers. Findings suggest that the two-way immersion context may facilitate more nativelike articulation. Amount of exposure to native speaker input, emerging adolescent identity, and decreases in instructional use of the minority language are explored as contributing factors to the greater outcomes of two-way students.

Keywords: language immersion, Spanish, pronunciation, vowels, voice onset time, rhotics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous research
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Tasks
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Voiceless stop consonants
    • 4.1Overview
    • 4.2Analysis
    • 4.3Results
  • 5.Rhotics
    • 5.1Overview
    • 5.2Analysis
    • 5.3Results
  • 6.Vowels
    • 6.1Overview
    • 6.2Analysis
    • 6.3Findings
  • 7.Discussion
    • 7.1Does the pronunciation of EHL students in a one-way Spanish immersion program differ from that of EHL students in a two-way Spanish immersion program as compared to SHL students in a two-way immersion program? If so, how?
    • 7.2Does the pronunciation of English home language students in Spanish immersion programs change over time? If so, how?
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 3 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.18013.men
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