The Discrimination of English Vowels by Bilingual Spanish/English and Monolingual English Speakers
نویسندگان
چکیده
CONTE PORARY ISSUES IN COMMU ICATION SCIENCE AND DISORDERS • Volume 31 • 162–172 • Fall 2004 © NSSLHA 1092-5171/04/3102-0162 ABSTRACT: The discrimination of English vowel contrasts in real and novel words by 40 native English and 40 bilingual Spanish/English participants was examined, with novel words representing new words in a second language. Discrimination was investigated because this factor is the basis of phonological awareness, although most practitioners focus on production when working with bilingual speakers. This study showed an interaction between bilingualism, vowel contrasts, and novel words. Bilingual participants had greater difficulty with certain vowel contrasts that were contained in novel words, whereas native English participants had no significant difficulty with vowel contrasts in either real or novel words. The main variables that affected the bilingual participants’ discrimination were the age of acquisition of English, the report of problems in communication in English, and the overall percentage of time that was devoted to communication in English.
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