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Article published In:
Journal of Second Language Pronunciation
Vol. 3:2 (2017) ► pp.242–266

The acquisition of rhotics by child L2 and L3 learners

| University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |

This study investigated how previous linguistic experience and universal strategies guide the acquisition of phonology in the classroom. More specifically, it focused on the possible advantages that bilingual children have over monolingual children. Thirty-four children completed a picture-naming task: 9 Spanish native speakers, 19 English native speakers acquiring Spanish as L2 and 6 Korean-English bilinguals acquiring Spanish as L3. Results indicated that in general the children rapidly acquired native-like pronunciation of the Spanish rhotics, but the Korean-English bilinguals outperformed the English-speaking children. We propose that although previous linguistic knowledge plays a role in L2 and L3 acquisition, children are able to overcome transfer errors because they are guided by universal developmental strategies from the initial stages of acquisition. We suggest that if L3 learners have an advantage over L2 learners, this may be due to their complex linguistic knowledge and higher metalinguistic competence.

Keywords: child language acquisition, second language, third language, rhotics, Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The rhotic systems of Spanish, English and Korean
  • 3.The acquisition of rhotics in Spanish
  • 4.The study
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials and procedure
    • 4.3Analysis
    • 4.4Results
      • 4.4.1Analysis by time of exposure
        • 4.4.1.1Intervocalic tap production
        • 4.4.1.2Intervocalic trill production
      • 4.4.2Analysis by L1
        • 4.4.2.1Intervocalic tap production
        • 4.4.2.2Intervocalic trill production
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.3.2.04rey
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