Conference Proceedings

The assimilation of L2 Australian English vowels to L1 Japanese vowel categories: Vocabulary size matters

RL Bundgaard-Nielsen, CT Best, MD Tyler

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association Interspeech | Published : 2008

Abstract

Theory strongly suggests that L2 perception is influenced by the L1. More recently, it has also been proposed that L2 vocabulary size may be related to the perception of non-native phones. Japanese (JP) learners of Australian English (AE) identified AE vowels using JP vowel categories and provided goodness-of-fit ratings. Results show systematic perceptual assimilations of L2 to L1 vowels and learners with a larger L2 vocabulary provided more consistent identifications. Copyright © 2008 ISCA.

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