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English orthographic forms affect L2 English speech production in native users of a non-alphabetic writing system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2019

Mirjana Sokolović-Perović Open the ORCID record for Mirjana Sokolović-Perović [Opens in a new window] ,
Bene Bassetti Open the ORCID record for Bene Bassetti [Opens in a new window]  and
Susannah Dillon
Mirjana Sokolović-Perović*
Affiliation:
University of Reading, UK
Bene Bassetti
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham, UK
Susannah Dillon
Affiliation:
University of Reading, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Mirjana Sokolović-Perović, E-mail: m.sokolovic@reading.ac.uk
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Abstract

There is growing evidence that the orthographic forms (spellings) of second language words affect second language (L2) speech production, but it is not known whether orthography affects L2 phonology in native users of a non-alphabetic writing system. To answer this question, this study tested the effects of number of letters on the duration of consonants and vowels in the EnglishL2 speech production of Japanese–English sequential bilinguals. JapaneseL1–EnglishL2 bilinguals and English native speakers (both n = 16) performed a delayed word repetition task, producing 16 English word pairs in which the same consonant or vowel was spelled either with a single letter or with double letters, as in city-kitty. The bilinguals produced the same English sound as longer or shorter depending on the number of letters in its spelling, confirming that L2 orthographic forms affect L2 speakers’ phonological representations of L2 words even when their L1 writing system is not alphabetical.

Keywords

bilingualismspeech productionorthographic effectsL2 phonologyEnglish as a second language
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , May 2020 , pp. 591 - 601
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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