The Acquisition of English Lexical Stress by Chinese-Speaking Learners: An OT Account

Autor/inn/en	Yuan, Man; Cheng, Wei
Titel	The Acquisition of English Lexical Stress by Chinese-Speaking Learners: An OT Account
Quelle	In: English Language Teaching, 10 (2017) 7, S.140-149 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1916-4742
Schlagwörter	Chinese; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Lexicology; Native Speakers; Reading Aloud to Others; Nouns; Syllables; Interlanguage; Interference (Language); Graduate Students; College Second Language Programs; Language Acquisition; Language Tests; Foreign Countries; United States; China; Test of English as a Foreign Language + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? China; Chinesen; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Lexikologie; Muttersprachler; Silbe; Zielsprache; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Language test; Sprachtest; Ausland; USA
Abstract	Lexical stress is an important contributor to foreign accent as well as intelligibility of second language (L2) speech. The present study intends to find out to what extent Chinese-speaking learners whose native language has less evident stress can acquire English lexical stress. A production test was administered to nine advanced Chinese learners of English and nine native English controls, who read aloud 12 types of nonce English nouns. The results showed that the Chinese participants were able to place stress correctly in two-syllable words and three-syllable words with a heavy penultimate syllable. However, irregularity was observed in three-syllable words with a light penultimate syllable, particularly H(eavy)L(ow)L(ow). The results are further interpreted in Optimality Theory. It is argued that the learners' interlanguage grammar is both negatively and positively influenced by their native language. The constraint only active in Chinese causes the interlanguage to be non-nativelike. By contrast, the shared active constraints facilitate learning. Moreover, the emergence of the constraints in the interlanguage grammar which are inactive in Chinese but active in English provides evidence for the learners' ability to restructure their interlanguage phonology. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01