Graded effects of first and second language orthography on pronunciation during second language acquisition

• Author / Creator

  Shantz, Kailen TW

• This study aims to assess how frequency-based and probabilistic measure describing the orthography-phonology relationship influence the accuracy of second language (L2) pronunciation in a phonological decoding task for native English learners of German, and a control group with no formal knowledge of German. Using one-, two- and three-letter sequences, the measures under investigation are the frequency of letter n-grams, the frequency with which letter n-grams co-occur with the expected phones, and the contingency between letter n-grams and the expected phones. Results indicate that the orthographic predictors of interest influence pronunciation accuracy during phonological decoding, and that this influence is graded. Findings also reveal interactions with L2 exposure, offering insight into how orthographic effects change during second language acquisition. Finally, one-, two-, and three-letter sequences were found to variably predict pronunciation accuracy, suggesting possible differences in how letter sequences of varying sizes are processed by L2 learners.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Reading aloud
  • Phonological decoding
  • Second language acquisition
  • Second language pronunciation
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Orthography

• Graduation date

  Fall 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3319S88H

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.