The Acquisition of L2 Speech Sounds in Early Language Learning : Linguistic and Cognitive-Psychological Aspects

本研究从语音学和心理语言学两个角度考察了沉浸式教学中二语言语的习得情况，并对费奇(1995)提出的言语学习模式进行了检验。具体地说，这项研究考察了在日语沉浸式项目中，许多内容科目都是用日语教授的说英语的儿童是否能够成功地获得日语的分段计时(即单音和双音的语音开始时间和结束时间)，并在退出项目后尽管二语输入减少的情况下仍能保持这种能力。数据来自15名参加日语浸入计划的儿童、5名参加该计划的浸入式教师、10名日语单语者、10名英语单语者和10名小学时退出日语浸入式计划的说英语的大学生(N=50)。被调查者被要求重复几个目标词，在一个句子框架中，首字母/p，t，k/代表vot，而medial/p，t，k/和/pp，tt，kk/代表独生子女和双胞胎。测量初始止点的VOT和内侧止点的关闭时间。结果表明：1)虽然独生子女和双子组儿童都显著长于日语单语儿童，但浸入式儿童获得了这种对比；2)尽管他们产生的日语无声塞音的VOT值显著长于单语儿童，但他们产生的VOT值显著短于他们的英语VOT。研究结果表明，双语儿童的语音类别可能与母语儿童的语音类别不同，这可能是二语儿童区分母语和母语语音相似的一种心理策略，这将支持Fge的SLM理论。此外，尽管结果不是决定性的，但沉浸式毕业生在退出项目后似乎保留了他们的语音能力。

This study investigates the acquisition of second language(L2) speech in an immersion program from both phonetic and psycholinguistic points of view, and also tests the Speech Learning Model(SLM) hypothesized by Flege(1995). Specifically, the study examines whether or not English-speaking children in a Japanese immersion program, in which many content subjects are taught in Japanese, can successfully acquire segmental timing(i.e., voice onset time(VOT) and closure duration fur singletons and geminates) in Japanese, and can retain this ability despite the decrease of L2 input after they have exited the program. Data were collected from 15 children in a Japanese immersion program, 5 immersion teachers in the program, 10 Japanese monolinguals, 10 English monolinguals, and 10 English-speaking university students who exited a Japanese immersion program in elementary school(N=50). The informants were asked to repeat several target words with initial/p, t, k/for VOT, and medial/p, t, k/ and/pp, tt, kk/ for singletons and geminates in a sentence frame. Both VOT of the initial stops and closure duration of the medial stops were measured. The results show that 1) although both their singletons and geminates were significantly longer than those of the Japanese monolinguals, the immersion children acquired the contrast, and that 2) although they produced Japanese voiceless stops with significantly longer VOT values than the monolingual Japanese children, they produced them with significantly shorter VOT values than their English VOT. The findings suggest that 3) the bilingual children may have phonetic categories different from Ll speakers', which can be a L2 speaker's psychological strategy for differentiating between similar sounds in Ll and L2, and this will support Flege's SLM. Also, though the results are not conclusive, the immersion graduates seem to have retained their phonetic ability after they exited the program.