15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)

Barcelona, Spain
August 3-9, 2003


Transfer in L2 Sound Production

Susana Cortes Pomacondor

University of Edinburgh, UK

This study aims to determine whether production of second language sounds is influenced by the native language (L1) phonology through a) only the phonemic inventory of the L1, b) both the phonemic inventory and the allophonic rules, c) only the phones in the L1 or d) the surface well-formedness conditions on L1 output. Predictions drawn from these hypotheses were tested against Catalan speakers' production of the English phonemes /d/ and /d/ in initial and intervocalic position.
   The results of the production experiment were consistent with two hypotheses: 1) that both the L1 phonemic inventory and the allophonic rules transfer or 2) the surface L1 output conditions are transferred onto L2.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Pomacondor, Susana Cortes (2003): "Transfer in L2 sound production", In ICPhS-15, 1097-1100.