Within both first and
second language acquisition research, a critical or sensitive period for complete attainment has
largely been substantiated in phonological studies, although it is questionable whether age should
be examined in isolation from sociopsychological influences and the extent of exposure to the
second language. This study sets out to challenge the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) by
examining phonological performance among highly motivated subjects who use German daily as
graduate student instructors and who have been immersed in the language through in-country
residence, augmented by years of instruction in both language- and content-based courses. The
methodology developed seeks to expand the realm of factors that are potentially conflated with
age, such as instruction, motivation, suprasegmental training, and self-perception of productive
accuracy, and other factors that have not been addressed in previous studies on ultimate
attainment. Production tasks target sounds difficult for nonnative speakers (NNSs) according to
contrastive analysis, and task types range in complexity from isolated words to sentences,
paragraphs, and free speech. A mean rating was computed for each speaker, including native
speaker controls, according to native speaker judgments. When averaged across all tasks,
nonnative speaker performance did not overlap with native performance. However, several
variables correlated significantly with outcome, including suprasegmental training, which
indicated performance closer to native level.
This study presents new data on the degree of ‘foreign ’ accent among immigrant learners of English in the USA (total N 50) as it correlates to learner orientation to the target language and target language culture. Correlation analyses confirm the significance of age of onset and length of immersion, as well as learner attitudes, including: (a) reasons for learning English; (b) perceived ability to improve in English; (c) desire to improve accent; (d) self-confidence in English; (e) comfort with assimilation to the target language culture (USA); and (f) intention to reside in the USA long-term. A close examination of the data points to three main conclusions: (1) language attitudes are significant for accent, as are more traditional measures such as age of onset with the target language and length of residence in the target language environment; (2) attitudes toward the target language itself are more powerfully linked to accent than are culture-directed attitudes, though both are significant; (3) a combination of experience and a positive orientation appears to be particularly important for attaining greater authenticity in accent. doi: 10.2167/jmmd514.
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