| Description |
Recent research indicates that knowledge of words' spelled forms can affect the underlying phonological forms in second language learners. Notably, the research suggests that second learners can use orthographic input to infer information about the phonological forms of words. A familiar orthography with grapheme-phoneme correspondences inconsistent with those of the first language may cause learners to create nontarget-like lexical representations. In German, word-final obstruents are systematically devoiced. Word-final devoicing (WFD) is not represented orthographically. For example, <Rat>, 'advice' and <Rad>, 'wheel' are both pronounced [rat]. Research suggests that access to spelled forms delays native English speakers' acquisition of this phonological pattern. Other research has found that phonetic training about phonological patterns may help learners' productions become more target-like. This study investigates whether phonetic training helps learners overcome the delay in acquiring WFD by giving explicit instruction on pronunciation. Native English speakers were randomly assigned to one of four groups: Spell-Instruction; Spell-No Instruction; No Spell-Instruction; and No Spell-No Instruction. They were taught six German nonword minimal pairs, differing in the voicing of the final consonant (kreip/kreib). Learners in the spell groups saw spelled forms of the words and learners in the instruction group saw instructions about pronunciation ( "a 'b' at the end of a word is pronounced 'p.'"). Words spelled with voiced final consonants were more likely to be produced with voiced final consonants than those whose final consonants were spelled voiceless. Participants in both Spell conditions were less likely to devoice targets with voiced final consonants than those in the No Spell conditions, confirming a relationship between seeing spelled forms and not acquiring WFD. Finally, learners in the Instruction conditions (NI and SI) devoiced voiced final consonants at no greater rate than learners in the No Spell conditions, suggesting that instruction provided no clear benefit for acquiring WFD. |
