Doctoral Dissertation Research: Perception and production of vowel contrasts in Welsh-Spanish bilinguals

虽然双语或多语是世界范围内的常态，但大部分语言学研究都集中在单语人群上。当前的第二语言习得理论认为，准确的第二语言声音感知与说话者个人水平上的发声能力有关，并且依赖于可观察到的母语和目标语之间的相似性。这个项目用实验和自然收集的语言数据来检验这些假设。检查这些影响是确定任何特定第二语言学习者的困难领域的第一步，这将有助于开发适合任何学习者和语言的教育方法。这个项目的结果有可能推动英语作为第二语言的倡议和美国的外语教育方法。该项目使用从音系、语音学和心理语言学研究中提取的方法，用从阿根廷的威尔士语-西班牙语双语人群中收集的数据来测试上述预测。这一人群在年龄和语言学习背景上存在差异，这使其成为理想的测试群体，而威尔士元音系统的性质为母语为西班牙语的人提供了一套有限的可测试的习得挑战。一项阅读任务将从测试组中引出威尔士语和西班牙语元音的发音，并控制威尔士语和阿根廷西班牙语单语人群。对对照组语音的统计分析将用于预测哪些威尔士元音对比可能会对母语为西班牙语的人构成挑战。结果将比较：1)双语者在元音识别和辨别方面的准确性；2)双语者元音发音与对照组的相似度。了解这一人群元音对比习得的挑战，将有助于对双语领域第二语言习得的性质和后果进行可扩展的预测。

Although bilingualism or multilingualism is the norm around the world, the bulk of linguistic research has focused on monolingual populations. Current theories of second language acquisition maintain that accurate second language sound perception is 1) correlated with speakers' production ability on an individual level and 2) dependent on observable similarities between the native and target language. This project tests these hypotheses with experimental and naturally collected language data. Examining these effects is the first step toward identifying areas of difficulty for learners of any given second language, which will contribute to development of educational methods tailored to any individual learner and language in question. The results of this project have the potential to advance both English as a Second Language initiatives and foreign language education methods in the U.S.Using methods drawn from phonological, phonetic, and psycholinguistic research, this project tests the above predictions with data collected from an understudied population of Welsh-Spanish bilinguals in Argentina. This population has variation in age and language learning backgrounds which makes it an ideal testing group, while the nature of the Welsh vowel system provides a constrained set of testable acquisition challenges for native Spanish speakers. A reading task will elicit productions of Welsh and Spanish vowels from the test group and control populations of Welsh speakers in Wales and Argentine Spanish monolinguals. Statistical analysis of control group speech will be used to predict which Welsh vowel contrasts are likely to challenge native speakers of Spanish. Results will be compared to 1) bilinguals' accuracy in vowel identification and discrimination and 2) the similarity of bilinguals' vowel productions to those of the control groups. Understanding the challenges of vowel contrast acquisition for this population will result in scalable predictions regarding the nature and consequences of second language acquisition for the field of bilingualism.