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The impact of study abroad in degree of foreign accent in the L2
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ming, Dani |
| Copyright Year | 2010 |
| Abstract | The present paper examined the effects of the Study Abroad learning context on pronunciation accuracy. A phonetic experiment was designed to check gains in the foreign-accented speech of nine Spanish undergraduate students who resided and studied in the UK for eight months. Three native speakers of English were in charge of listening and rating samples coming from the oral narrations provided by the aforementioned students, who were recorded four times all through the entire stay abroad. Results showed that seven out of the nine students were able to diminish their Spanish accent, but some of them were perceived as being less accented than others. Results also demonstrated that some features of the English pronunciation improved more than others, suggesting that the most marked features are more difficult to acquire. The present paper aims at examining one specific linguistic aspect of second language acquisition, which is Foreign Accent, in relation with one specific learning condition, which is Study Abroad. In this introductory section, these notions will be defined and reviewed to offer the reader the necessary background to fully capture the purpose of the study that is going to be presented afterwards. First, the linguistic benefits obtained on the oral domain by Study Abroad contexts will be listed. Then, a succinct review of what is known of this context in comparison with other learning contexts will be presented, offering examples on this matter from the existing literature. Lastly, the concept of Foreign Accent will be defined, and put together with all the factors that are believed to affect this particular aspect of speech. Study Abroad and gains in oral proficiency Among the issues that have been of great interest in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) studies, there are the contextual settings where learning most potentially develops. Traditionally, a main distinction has been drawn between naturalistic and formal settings, but there are other contexts that have been object of close analysis like Study Abroad (SA), At Home instruction (AH) or Immersion programmes (IM). All these three contexts affect in one way or another how the learning process is carried out, and they have been often compared to find out which one provides the most advantageous conditions for this process to take place. The first one, SA, has been thoroughly researched in SLA because of its presumed catalytic effects in the learning process of students that are immersed in the country where the target … |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/48306/1/Dani%20Ming.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
