"In present – day societies it is rare to find someone who speaks only one language; most people around the globe know and use several languages in their daily lives. Within this context, the mother tongue might have influence on the L2."
This academic paper is about the interference between German as L1 and English as L2 within a group 14-15 year-old teenagers. The main goal is to exemplify, whether the children's original dialects have any interference on their foreign language approach. It was tried to find participants, whose dialects give good examples for the region, they live in. Before the test and its results are described, some general information about L1 influences on L2 will be given.
Because the children, who participated in the test, were on a language trip to England while the test was taken, the basis for the research to this paper is the Recieved Pronuciation, although some of the students might have been in contact with other varieties of English before. To achieve more comparability, their English was only compared to the RP standard.
A difficulty during the research was to distingiush between varieties caused by their mother tongue and such caused by generell troubles in pronunciation. Therefore, the main focus was put on clear examples, such as voiced and devoiced sounds, aspiration and the [w, r] – sounds. All those examples can be looked at to find language interference between L1 and L2, whereas the θ/ð] – sound , which was analysed as well has to be looked at carefully. Many learners of English might have problems pronouncing that sound, but these problems are not neccessarily caused be their L1 dialect, but can be caused by the generell absence of the [θ/ð] – sound in the German language as their mother tongue.
There were different situations created in the test to find out, how students react, when they are just asked to read something out compared to the situation, when they have to speak freely and also, how their pronunciation changes, when they are asked to remember something and then repeat it after a few moments. The main reason, why those different situations were created, was that students might focus less on pronunciation, the more their attention is lead to something else. The more they are distracted, the more intuitive they react and the more they react intuitive, the more their original dialect is supposed to come out.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. linguistic interference
2. test
2.1 test procedure
2.2. test results
2.3. interpretation of the results
3. Conclusion
4. Bibliography
books
5. Appendix
Objectives and Research Themes
This academic paper examines the phonological interference between German as a first language (L1) and English as a second language (L2) among 14-15 year-old teenagers. The research aims to investigate whether regional German dialects influence the pronunciation patterns of students when learning English, specifically focusing on whether these influences become more pronounced during spontaneous speech compared to controlled reading tasks.
- Phonological interference between L1 dialects and L2 English.
- Impact of voiced and devoiced sounds, aspiration, and vowel coloring.
- Comparison of controlled reading tasks versus spontaneous emotional speech.
- Assessment of the role of the learner's L1 background on English pronunciation.
Excerpt from the Book
1. linguistic interference
The programme of contrastive linguistics was formulated in the sixties and seventies of the last century with the primary objective of making foreign language teaching more efficient. Especially for teachers or trainee teachers it is neccessary to know the difficulties caused by L1 while learning a foreign language. Only then can they react in an adequat way, when learners show typical problems. " Some of the earliest research on the role of the learner's L1 in accounting for pronunciation errors was carried out in the context of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis."
Basic assumptions of contrastive linguistics are, that first language acquisition and foreign language learning differ fundamentally, especially in those cases, where the foreign language is learned later than a mother tongue and on the basis of the full mastery of that mother tongue. Furthermore it is assumed that every language has its own specific structure. Based on these two assumptions, it is supposed, that similarities between the two languages will cause no difficulties, but can even be helpfull for a foreign language approach. This use of knowledge from L1 while learning L2 is called "positive transfer".
Summary of Chapters
Introduction: Outlines the research topic regarding L1 interference on L2 English among teenagers and defines the focus on phonological features like voicing and aspiration.
1. linguistic interference: Explores the theoretical foundations of contrastive linguistics, positive and negative transfer, and the role of interlanguage.
2. test: Describes the methodology, including participant selection based on regional German dialects and the three-part experimental design.
2.1 test procedure: Details the setting of the study conducted during a language trip in England and the specific tasks given to the students.
2.2. test results: Presents the findings regarding pronunciation of voiced/devoiced sounds, aspiration, and vowel coloring based on the collected audio tracks.
2.3. interpretation of the results: Analyzes the data to determine if observed pronunciation errors stem from L1 dialectal influence or general L2 learning challenges.
3. Conclusion: Summarizes that while some L1 influence exists, it is not universal and often depends on the specific linguistic feature being examined.
4. Bibliography: Lists the academic books and sources utilized for the research.
5. Appendix: Provides the questionnaire and the specific German and English sentences used during the test sessions.
Keywords
Linguistic interference, L1, L2, Contrastive linguistics, Phonology, Pronunciation, Voicing, Devoicing, Aspiration, Interlanguage, German dialect, English learning, Language transfer, Phonetics, Second language acquisition.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research paper?
The paper focuses on the phonological interference that occurs when German-speaking teenagers use English as a second language, specifically examining how their regional L1 dialects influence their English pronunciation.
What are the central thematic fields?
The core themes include contrastive linguistics, the phenomenon of positive and negative language transfer, phonological properties of L2 speech, and the analysis of interlanguage.
What is the central research question?
The central goal is to exemplify whether a student's original German dialect has a measurable interference on their approach to English pronunciation, particularly in different speaking contexts.
Which scientific method is employed?
The author uses an empirical approach involving a small-scale study with six 14-15 year-old students, who were recorded while performing reading and spontaneous speaking tasks.
What is covered in the main section?
The main section covers the theoretical framework of linguistic interference, the detailed test procedure, the presentation of results regarding specific sounds like [θ/ð] and [r], and an interpretation of these findings.
Which keywords characterize this work?
The work is characterized by terms like linguistic interference, phonological transfer, interlanguage, dialectal coloring, and contrastive analysis.
Why was the test conducted during a language trip?
The trip to England provided a natural environment where students were immersed in English, allowing for a study based on the Received Pronunciation (RP) standard while they were away from their home environment.
Did the study confirm that spontaneous speech increases dialectal influence?
No, the assumption that L1 dialect would influence speech more when students were distracted (sidetracked) was not fulfilled; students often seemed more concentrated during spontaneous tasks due to their limited English proficiency.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Fabian Müller (Autor:in), 2012, Linguistic interference between L1 dialects and L2, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/268415
