The degree of similarity between the sounds of a speaker’s first and second language (L1 and L2) is believed to determine the likelihood of accurate perception and production of the L2 sounds. This paper explores the relationship between cross-linguistic similarity and the perception and production of a subset of English vowels, including the highly productive /iː/-/ɪ/ contrast (as in “beat” vs. “bit”), by a group of Spanish/Catalan native speakers learning English as an L2. The learners’ ability to identify, discriminate and produce the English vowels accurately was contrasted with their cross-linguistic perceived similarity judgements. The results showed that L2 perception and production accuracy was not always predicted from patterns of cross-language similarity, particularly regarding the difficulty distinguishing /iː/ and /ɪ/. Possible explanations may involve the way the L2 /iː/ and /ɪ/ categories interact, the effect of non-native acoustic cue reliance, and the roles of orthography and language instruction.
According to many sociolinguistic studies, there is some inter-speaker variation that cannot be explained by differences in social factors such as age, socioeconomic class, geographical origin and gender or differences in contextual style. These inter-speaker differences would be more related to how an individual uses their language and how they express their identity in relation to their speech community (Johnstone 1996;Milroy & Milroy 1977, 1978. This view is particularly relevant for the field of forensic linguistics, in that it supports the premise that speakers show a particular combination of linguistic patterns that characterise their idiolectal style
This article deals with a forensic linguistics case study of the determination of the level of a B1 English multiple-choice test that was challenged in court by numerous candidates on the grounds that it was not of the appropriate level. A control corpus comprising 240 analogous multiple-choice questions from B1 exams aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was compiled in order to establish a threshold for the percentage of questions of a level higher than that being tested which can be expected in such exams. The analysis was carried out following a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, with the help of the tool English Profile, which provides Reference Level Descriptions (RLDs) for the English language within the CEFR. The results of the analysis of the control corpus established a baseline of 5 to 7% of questions that include key items classified as higher than B1, while the percentage was 68% in the case of the disputedexam. Thus, the present study proposes a further application of the tool English Profile within the field of forensic linguistics and puts forward the concept of Level Appropriateness Threshold (LAT), analogous to other thresholds established in forensic linguistics, which can serve as a baseline for determining the appropriateness of B1 English multiple-choice exams and a model for other levels and skill areas.
Maite, as she was universally known within the academic community died on 24 th April 2013 after a long ght with leukaemia. She is survived by her daughter, Julia and her 2-year old granddaughter Alice, who brought great joy to the last months of her life. Everyone who met Maite for the rst time was struck by her energy, enthusiasm, determination and perspicacity. Those who were lucky enough to count themselves among her many friends bene tted from her warmth, kindness and an amazing generosity with her time. We are honoured to have been invited to write this appreciation. One of Maite's most attractive features was her pioneering spirit, which was present throughout her academic career. Her doctoral dissertation, as well as much of her research during the 1980s and 90s, introduced Spanish academics to the main theoretical and methodological principles of sociolinguistics. Her research was, from the beginning, characterized by the scienti c rigour in the treatment of data that would mark her subsequent research in the areas of language contact, multilingualism, language acquisition and latterly forensic linguistics, to which she dedicated most of her academic research and publications in the last twelve years. Indeed, she was instrumental in introducing the eld into Spain running impeccably organised conferences, supervising a wide variety of postgraduate students and creating one of the rst Masters degrees in Forensic Linguistics in the world. In 2003, Maite set up the rst forensic linguistics laboratory in Spain, ForensicLab, within a pre-existing research group that was investigating linguistic variation (UVAL). ForensicLab was based inside the Institute for Applied Linguistics (IULA), at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and under Maite's leadership, became a pioneer in teaching, research and expert witness work in forensic linguistics, not only nationally but also internationally. At the same time Maite, always an enthusiastic and gifted teacher, created and directed the rst Master's Degree in Forensic Linguistics to be o ered in Spanish. Always aware of the di culty of creating a new degree almost single-handedly while at the same time training the next generation of scholars to continue the discipline, she ensured the highest quality input for her students by regularly inviting internationally recognised experts to contribute short intensive courses to her edgling Mestrado.
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