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This study assessed the relation between non-native subjects' age of learning (AOL) English and the overall degree of perceived foreign accent in their production of English sentences. The 240 native Italian (NI) subjects examined had begun learning English in Canada between the ages of 2 and 23 yr, and had lived in Canada for an average of 32 yr. Native English-speaking listeners used a continuous scale to rate sentences spoken by the NI subjects and by subjects in a native English comparison group. Estimates of the AOL of onset of foreign accents varied across the ten listeners who rated the sentences, ranging from 3.1 to 11.6 yr (M = 7.4). Foreign accents were evident in sentences spoken by many NI subjects who had begun learning English long before what is traditionally considered to be the end of a critical period. Very few NI subjects who began learning English after the age of 15 yr received ratings that fell within the native English range. Principal components analyses of the NI subjects' responses to a language background questionnaire were followed by multiple-regression analyses. AOL accounted for an average of 59% of variance in the foreign accent ratings. Language use factors accounted for an additional 15% of variance. Gender was also found to influence degree of foreign accent.

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This study examined the production and perception of English vowels by highly experienced native Italian speakers of English. The subjects were selected on the basis of the age at which they arrived in Canada and began to learn English, and how much they continued to use Italian. Vowel production accuracy was assessed through an intelligibility test in which native English-speaking listeners attempted to identify vowels spoken by the native Italian subjects. Vowel perception was assessed using a categorial discrimination test. The later in life the native Italian subjects began to learn English, the less accurately they produced and perceived English vowels. Neither of two groups of early Italian/English bilinguals differed significantly from native speakers of English either for production or perception. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis of the speech learning model [Flege, in Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Theoretical and Methodological Issues (York, Timonium, MD, 1995)] that early bilinguals establish new categories for vowels found in the second language (L2). The significant correlation observed to exist between the measures of L2 vowel production and perception is consistent with another hypothesis of the speech learning model, viz., that the accuracy with which L2 vowels are produced is limited by how accurately they are perceived.