In Spanish, voiced stops weaken to approximants and display variables degrees of lenition according to the context in which the stop occurs, making them a complex pronunciation feature. Accumulated findings from cross-sectional research on second language (L2) speakers suggests that many L2 learners struggle to produce the approximants even at the most advanced levels of study. The present study offers a new perspective on the approximants by studying individual learners’ production of Spanish [β] over time and across phonetic contexts. Twenty-six English-speaking learners of L2 Spanish recorded two speaking tasks five times over a yearlong period corresponding to their second and third semesters of college-level language instruction. Mixed-effects models were fit to learners’ C:V intensity ratio data to examine development, and stress and task type were included as substantive predictors. Although the group trajectory was flat, many learners displayed substantial change over time, including positive and negative trajectories.
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2023. Articulatory Insights into the L2 Acquisition of English-/l/ Allophony. Language and Speech
Nagle, Charlie L., Amanda Huensch & Germán Zárate–Sández
2023. Exploring phonetic predictors of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and foreign accent in L2 Spanish speech. The Modern Language Journal 107:1 ► pp. 202 ff.
Zhang, Linxi, Alfonso Morales-Front & Cristina Sanz
2018. Motivation, Comprehensibility, and Accentedness in L2 Spanish: Investigating Motivation as a Time‐Varying Predictor of Pronunciation Development. The Modern Language Journal 102:1 ► pp. 199 ff.
NAGLE, CHARLES, REBECCA SACHS & GERMÁN ZÁRATE–SÁNDEZ
2018. Exploring the Intersection Between Teachers’ Beliefs and Research Findings in Pronunciation Instruction. The Modern Language Journal 102:3 ► pp. 512 ff.
Nagle, Charles L.
2018. Examining the Temporal Structure of the Perception–Production Link in Second Language Acquisition: A Longitudinal Study. Language Learning 68:1 ► pp. 234 ff.
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