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Part of
Methods in Study Abroad Research: Past, present, and future
Edited by Carmen Pérez-Vidal and Cristina Sanz
[Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 4] 2023
► pp. 291–315

Chapter 12
Phonological and phonetic development in study abroad research

| Georgetown University

There is an old anecdote about Daniel Jones (the real Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady/Pygmalion) according to which all he needed was “his ears” for phonetics fieldwork. Currently, many linguists do not receive enough phonetic training and consequently may not have Jones’ acoustically tuned ears. However, technology has afforded researchers new instruments that make phonetic analysis a widely accessible field of inquiry. Recent years have also seen increased attention to issues in second language methodology. In this chapter I discuss some methodological issues that may affect validity and contribute to the possibility of variable findings in research on phonological and phonetic development in study abroad. The chapter follows the standard structure and reviews first what has been done in the literature; then identifies possible issues with current practice; and finally makes proposals for improvements and future developments.

Keywords: production, obstruents, sonorants, VOT, vowel duration, vowel reduction, intonation, foreign accent, dialectal features, binning
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Review of the literature and overview of current methodological practice
    • Production
    • Segmental level
    • Suprasegmental level
    • Wholistic measurements
    • Acquisition of dialectal features
    • Methodological practice
    • Perception
  • Issues and limitations
    • Measurement bias
    • Study design
    • Issues of omission
    • Issues of simplification
    • Operationalization of the dependent variable
    • Simplifications related to the independent variable(s)
    • Systematicity
    • Complex systems
    • Dynamic systems
  • Recommendations and future developments
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 3 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.4.12mor
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