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的角度探讨了沉浸式教学中二语语音的习得，并对Festival（1995）提出的语音学习模型进行了检验。具体而言，该研究考察了在日语沉浸式课程中讲英语的儿童是否能成功地获得分段计时（即，语音起始时间（VOT）和关闭持续时间的单音节和双音节），并能保持这种能力，尽管减少L2输入后，他们已经退出程序。数据收集从15名儿童在日本沉浸式课程，5名沉浸式教师在程序中，10名日本单语者，10名英语单语者，和10名英语为母语的大学生谁退出了日本沉浸式课程在小学（N=50）。被试被要求在一个句子框架中重复几个目标词，其中VOT以/p，t，k/开头，而单数和成对词以/p，t，k/和/pp，tt，kk/开头。测量初始止点的VOT和内侧止点的闭合持续时间。结果表明：（1）尽管他们的单音节和双音节都显著长于日语单语儿童，但沉浸儿童获得了对比;（2）尽管他们产生的日语无音塞音的VOT值显著长于日语单语儿童，但他们产生的VOT值显著短于英语儿童。研究结果表明：（3）双语儿童可能具有与母语儿童不同的语音类别，这可能是母语儿童区分母语和二语相似语音的心理策略，这将支持Festival的SLM理论。此外，尽管结果还不是决定性的，但沉浸式课程的毕业生在退出课程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.