Cross-language perception of Brazilian Portuguese vowels by Californian English listeners

2011 ◽  
Vol 130 (4) ◽  
pp. 2574-2574
Author(s):  
Polina Vasiliev ◽  
Paola Escudero
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Language Perception ◽  
Cross Language

The L2 perception of initial English /h/ and /ɹ/ by Brazilian Portuguese learners of English

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Denise Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Discrimination Test ◽  
Identification Test ◽  
L2 Perception ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Language Assimilation

This study investigates how speakers who speak Brazilian Portuguese as their first language and English as their second language perceive the English phonemes /h/ and /ɹ/, and how they and monolingual Brazilian Portuguese speakers map these phonemes onto Portuguese sound categories. Participants took part in three experiments: an AXB discrimination test, an identification test, and a cross-language assimilation test, which was also taken by monolinguals. Lower and higher proficiency groups were able to hear the distinction acoustically, but only the higher proficiency group used the distinction to identify English words. Monolingual Brazilian Portuguese speakers and the higher proficiency group assimilated English /h/ primarily to Portuguese /h/. However, the phonological environment had an effect for monolinguals, but not for the higher proficiency group. The lower proficiency group, which one might expect to fall in between these two groups, showed a failure to assimilate English sounds to the Portuguese categories.

scholarly journals L1 phonological effects on L2 (non-)naïve perception: A cross-language investigation of the oral–nasal vowel contrast in Brazilian Portuguese

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110449
Author(s):  
Ruth Maria Martinez ◽  
Heather Goad ◽  
Michael Dow
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
The Status ◽  
Vowel Systems ◽  
Quebec French ◽  
Caribbean Spanish ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Vowel Contrast ◽  
Cross Language

Feature-based approaches to acquisition principally focus on second language (L2) learners’ ability to perceive non-native consonants when the features required are either contrastively present or entirely absent from the first language (L1) grammar. As features may function contrastively or allophonically in the consonant and/or vowel systems of a language, we expand the scope of this research to address whether features that function contrastively in the L1 vowel system can be recombined to yield new vowels in the L2; whether features that play a contrastive role in the L1 consonant system can be reassigned to build new vowels in the L2; and whether L1 allophonic features can be ‘elevated’ to contrastive status in the L2. We examine perception of the oral–nasal contrast in Brazilian Portuguese listeners from French, English, Caribbean Spanish, and non-Caribbean Spanish backgrounds, languages that differ in the status assigned to [nasal] in their vowel systems. An AXB discrimination task revealed that, although all language groups succeeded in perceiving the non-naïve contrast /e/–/ẽ/ due to their previous exposure to Québec French while living in Montréal, Canada, only French and Caribbean Spanish speakers succeeded in discriminating the naïve contrast /i/–/ĩ/. These findings suggest that feature redeployment at first exposure is only possible if the feature is contrastive in the L1 vowel system (French) or if the feature is allophonic but variably occurs in contrastive contexts in the L1 vowel system (Caribbean Spanish). With more exposure to a non-native contrast, however, feature redeployment from consonant to vowel systems was also supported, as was the possibility that allophonic features may be elevated to contrastive status in the L2.

Cross‐language perception of voice and affect

2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 3290-3290
Author(s):  
Christer Gobl ◽  
Irena Yanushevskaya ◽  
Ailbhe N. Chasaide
Keyword(s):  
Language Perception ◽  
Cross Language
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