SLA: Analysis of Lisa's Phonological Contexts

Week 3: Sounds of Learner language

Identify two English sounds your interviewee had during the interview
(target feature A and B).

1. What new information have you obtained about your subjects IL phonology by listing the correct and incorrect productions? Are there phonological contexts in which A and B are produced more correctly then others?

Target feature A: r / l pronunciation

Lisa had no problems pronouncing the ‘r’ sound in her sentences at all. There was only one instance I could find where she mispronounced ‘l’ with an ‘r’ sound.

In line 25 of the transcript I typed out, Lisa says the teacher in the classroom ‘moved a rittle bit’.

However in lines 13, 27, and 34 she uses the ‘l’ sound with no problem.

13: started learning English

27: Not like nowadays

34: and then listen to English radio.

So it would seem that she starts to struggle when faced with a CVCC in the alveolar place of articulation (t sound). More specifically trying to start with the alveolar ‘l’ and move into the alveolar ‘t’.

It is here that Lisa mispronounces the alveolar ‘l’ and instead produces the palatal ‘r’ phoneme.

In other instances of using CVCC  where the vowel is followed with palatal (r), velar (k), and alveolar (s) phonemes, Lisa pronounces the words with no problems.

Target feature B: ‘ch’

In line 20 Lisa mispronounces the ‘ch’ sound , and then again in line 33. There seems to be an added vowel sound at the end of the word.

20: in which(ee) I could learn

33: I try to watch(ee) news

In both instances the ‘ch’ sound is at the end of the word. This mispronunciation could also be attributed to L1 influence due the way the words would be spelt in the Korean Hangul writing system.

Which = 윗치    and Watch = 왓치 . The last two characters 치 = chee sound in English.

However, in lines 21 and 24, when the ch sound ( in the palatal position) is produced at beginning or middle of the word, Lisa is able to complete the word with no problems.

21: chose a club activity

24: Listened to the teacher

This ends my analysis of the phonological contexts of the subjects target features.