Social Dynamics in Second Language Accent

John M. Levis, Alene Moyer, John M. Levis, Alene Moyer

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781614512288
• eBook ISBN: 9781614518280
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This volume offers a definitive source for understanding social influences in L2 pronunciation, demonstrating the importance of empirical findings from a number of research perspectives, and outlining the directions that future work can take. The aim is to present a coherent argument for the significance of social factors and how they contribute to phonological acquisition.

Part I: The Nature of Accent

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Alene Moyer

1 The Social Nature of L2 Pronunciation

Acquiring a new sound system after a certain age is universally seen as difficult. Few late language learners end up sounding native-like, even if they reside many years in the target language country. While researchers can identify various processes and features that characterize the early stages of phonological development, it remains something of a mystery why, even at the advanced stage, a foreign-sounding accent is such a persistent feature of otherwise fluent speech. It is surely due, in large part, to the sheer complexity of phonology. L2 learners must learn to distinguish unfamiliar sound categories and produce new sounds in sequences that sometimes contradict L1 phonological patterns. Moreover, they must realize that slight variations in intonation, rhythm, speech rate, etc. convey pragmatic, culture-specific levels of meaning. In other words, their communicative fluency relies on utilizing a host of segmental and suprasegmental features to good effect. Age of learning is thought to predict just how far they get in terms of such fluency. But given that L2 learners have individual goals when it comes to pronunciation, and circumstances may not effectively support the acquisition of these many features, it is no surprise that variation in long-term attainment is so widespread.

Accent, “a set of dynamic segmental and suprasegmental habits that convey linguistic meaning along with social and situational affiliation” (Moyer, 2013), is typically seen as either a cognitive skill learned through effortful practice and self-monitoring, or a highly personal reflection of identity and affiliation with the target language. The accent as skill perspective emphasizes the ability to form new perceptual categories. This ability is thought to be encumbered by maturational changes that are neuro-biological and/or cognitive in nature. By contrast, the accent as identity view seeks to understand the importance of attitudes, motivation, and the extent of one’s desire to sound like a native speaker of the target language. It therefore seeks context-specific explanations for phonological attainment related to the depth and breadth of the one’s social networks, one’s attitudes regarding both L1 and L2, and even external (listener) attitudes about L2 speakers and their accents. Both perspectives should be appreciated, because more than any other aspect of language, phonological acquisition draws on both cognitive and affective influences. Accent is both deeply internal – cognitively and psychologically – and inherently social in nature, regardless of the specific learning circumstances. This holds as true for the mother tongue(s) as it does for any subsequently learned languages (Moyer, 2013).

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Pronunciation² in another language is not simply a matter of making oneself understood on an acoustic level. Pronunciation conveys linguistic meaning at the same time that it indicates social identity and communicative stance. This is because the way we sound overall, our accent, is in many ways an expression of who we are, where we come from, and who we would like to be. L2 phonology³ is an area that therefore merits investigation on many levels. The segmental level is obvious in constructs like degree of accent, while a broader understanding of communicative, discursive fluency is front and center when we speak of suprasegmental skills. In L2 pronunciation research we find a correspondingly wide range of investigative approaches, from lab-based studies utilizing spectrographic and wave form analytics, to descriptive analyses of interactions between native and non-native speakers, to statistical and ethnographic studies of individual factors in long-term attainment.

This opening chapter draws on several approaches to advance an understanding of pronunciation as a dynamic, inherently social phenomenon. To underscore the complexity of phonological skill building in a second language, we address several prominent issues in the research, including age as a factor in the ability to perceive and produce new sounds; social and psychological influences on pronunciation; and the communicative and social reception of accent. In so doing, the groundwork is laid for the in-depth analyses offered in the following chapters.

1.1 Accent and Age of the Learner

As a rule, second language learners rely on the mother tongue(s) and previously learned languages as a knowledge base, drawing comparisons between these sound systems at the early stages of learning. Problems sometimes ensue. Features that are similar between L1 and L2 are oftentimes presumed to be identical, and finer L2 contrasts may not be noticed at all (e.g., the initial /t/ in terrific could sound like a /d/ if not sufficiently aspirated). Indeed, Flege (1995) has long argued that very similar features are far more difficult to notice than completely novel ones. If the learner does not perceive such nuances, she is not likely to articulate them. In some cases, altogether new categories must be acquired (typical English examples are the /æ/ as in cat and voiced and voiceless /ð, θ/ as in there and month). In other cases, familiar categories must be applied to new linguistic environments (e.g., voicing a final obstruent, so that bad does not sound like bat). Inappropriate substitutions and deletions – the most common developmental strategies – may allow communication to move forward (see Hansen-Edwards, Ch.3, this volume), but they also signal to the listener that the speaker is non-native, which could evoke negative responses, depending on the context (see Lindemann, Litzenberg & Subtirelu, Ch.8; Rubin & Kang, Ch.11, this volume). Adding stress, segment length, intonation, speech rate, pitch, and rhythm to the mix only complicates the challenges. These appear to be even harder for learners to notice than segmental distinctions. So, why is it so difficult to perceive and produce sounds and sound patterns in a new language?

The most commonly cited reason for such difficulties is the learner’s age at first exposure to the target language. Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis (1967) suggested that the onset of puberty – around age 9 or 10 years – marks a turning point in the ability to fully recover, and by implication to acquire, language. He further predicted that phonology would present the greatest challenge in this regard. The assumption is that the neural cells related to phonological acquisition cease to be adaptive past a certain age. Put another way, the intractability of a foreign accent can be blamed on a decline in neural plasticity. Indeed, there is evidence that perceptual faculties become biased toward L1 within the first year of life (Werker & Pegg, 1992), but this does not rule out the ability to learn new categories later on. Escudero and Boersma (2004) demonstrate that adults can form specific phonetic biases in the L2 as a function of exposure frequency, for example. In point of fact, the plasticity explanation seems to be losing ground in light of some compelling counterevidence.

As a skill that requires both higher order (analytical) and lower order (motor-based) processing, phonology relies on multiple neuro-cognitive capacities, any of which could gradually decline over the learner’s lifetime (e.g., hearing, memory, etc.). Such declines are not associated with a specific event like maturation. Moreover, recent studies using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and ERP (event-related potentials) technologies indicate that the brain is actually responsive and dynamic well into adulthood (see Herschensohn, 2007; Stowe & Sabourin, 2005). Sereno and Wang (2007) show that adults can be taught to accurately perceive tones in an unfamiliar tonal language after just two weeks of training, and that neural activity actually changes in response to new stimuli. In other words, new neural areas are recruited for processing novel sounds, and this shift is still apparent for some time following training. Another important finding in this study is that perception positively impacts production, highlighting the brain’s continuing adaptability, even for phonological learning. Such evidence casts doubt on a strict interpretation of the critical period.

One prominent theoretical debate is whether the faculties used for phonological learning early in life are still accessible later on, or whether other processing mechanisms step in to fill the gap. Best, McRoberts, and Sithole (1987) found that English-speaking adults can be taught to accurately discriminate African click sounds. A cognitive processing argument would suggest that the click category was so unfamiliar it triggered greater ‘noticing’, which then enhanced perception (see also Hancin-Bhatt, 1994). Simply put, what we observe as age-related constraints on categorical perception are really just processing biases, i.e., habits that have solidified over time with repeated exposure. Recent neural imaging data confirm that although late L2 learners process the target language differently from native speakers, this is likely a function of experience rather than age at first exposure (Birdsong, 2006; Steinhauer, White & Drury, 2009; see also Muñoz, 2006).

Numerous studies have analyzed the correlation between age and imitative ability (Markham, 1997; Reves, 1978; Thompson, 1991), usually on the basis of tasks wherein words and phrases are first modeled by a native speaker. This is not a true test of attainment, but this kind of immediate, decontextualized performance may demonstrate a connection between perceptual ability and production. The idea that some people are uniquely equipped to master a new sound system as a function of musical ability is also intriguing, but hard evidence is lacking (see Piske, MacKay & Flege, 2001). Perhaps those we think of as ‘talented’ mimics have a special sensitivity to rhythm and melody. These prosodic features are primarily processed in the right hemisphere (see Nardo & Reiterer, 2009), so exceptional learners may simply be bilateral rather than ‘left-hemisphere dominant’ in their language processing (see discussion in Moyer, 2013).

By other short-term measures, age effects are not consistent with a strict critical period; older learners tend to outperform younger ones on a range of phonology-related tasks (Snow & Hoefnagel-Hoehle, 1982). Looking longer term, Garcia-Lecumberri and Gallardo (2003) studied Basque-Spanish bilingual school children of various age groups acquiring English in a classroom. Targeting the third year of instruction, the authors showed that those who had started learning English as 11-year-olds were rated more intelligible and less foreign-sounding, and they also excelled on a vowel and consonant perception task compared to the two younger groups studied (Age of Onset of 8 years a...

Table of contents

• Social Dynamics in Second Language Accent
• Trends in Applied Linguistics
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: The Nature of Accent
• Part II: The Learner’s Approach to Pronunciation in Social Context
• Part III: The Teacher’s Approach to Accent
• Part IV: The Social Impact of Accent
• Part V: Conclusions
• Subject index