Second-language phonology : the role of perception

It is well known that adult learners have great diffi culty when attempting to learn the sounds of a second language (L2), as observed in the phenomenon commonly known as “foreign-accented speech.” Despite the fact that adults have well-developed cognitive capabilities and have superior abilities for many complex learning and problem solving tasks, if the task is to learn the sound system of a language, adults are generally outperformed by children. How can we explain this paradox? This chapter builds a case to show that the explanation crucially involves perception. In early phonological theory, the role of perception in explaining the performance of L2 speakers was taken seriously, as shown by the writings of Polivanov and Trubetzkoy in the fi rst half of the twentieth century. Polivanov (1931/1964) claimed that the consonant and vowel phonemes of an L2 are perceived through the fi rst language (L1) sound system, so that diffi culties in the production of L2 sounds were viewed as a consequence of the infl uence of the L1 in perception. Likewise, Trubetzkoy (1939/1969) believed that inadequate production of L2 sounds had a perceptual basis, suggesting that the L1 system acted as a “phonological fi lter” through which L2 sounds were perceived and classifi ed. Despite these early perception-based proposals, in the second half of the twentieth century, the focus of much research and theorizing in L2 phonology was on the production of sounds (see, e.g., Lado, 1957; Eckman, 1977, 1981; Major, 1987). Increasingly, however, L2 phonologists have recognized the contribution of perception to “foreign accent,” and a growing cross-linguistic speech perception literature has shown that L2 learners also have “perceptual foreign accents,” i.e., the way they perceive the L2 is based on their L1 perceptual system (for a review of these studies, see Strange, 1995). As I will argue in this chapter, the origin of a foreign accent is the use of language-specifi c perceptual strategies that are entrenched in the learner and that cannot be avoided when encountering the sounds of a second language. Therefore, the chapter concentrates on critically discussing the issues and explanations regarding L2 perception as well as on the implications of such explanations for language teaching