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In:Innovative Approaches to Research in Hispanic Linguistics: Regional, diachronic, and learner profile variation
Edited by Sara Fernández Cuenca, Tiffany Judy and Lauren Miller
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 38] 2023
► pp. 196–224

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Chapter 9
Individual differences do not affect trill variation by advanced learners of Spanish

 | SUNY Albany
 | University of North Carolina Wilmington
Published online: 7 June 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.38.09zha
Abstract
The current study analyzed whether variation in trill pronunciation by advanced learners of Spanish is conditioned by individual differences in phonological short-term memory, executive working memory, second language vocabulary score, and years of study, as well as five linguistic variables. We found that none of the individual difference variables significantly affected variation, while surrounding phonetic context and lexical stress were important predictors of this variation. The findings suggest that these individual differences do not impact trill variation by advanced learners, possibly because these factors are more important at lower levels of proficiency, or because trill variability is largely impacted by phonetic factors due to the well-known articulatory difficulty of this sound.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Native speaker trill production
  • 3.Second language learner trill production
  • 4.Individual differences and L2 phonological skills
    • 4.1Working memory
    • 4.2Phonological short-term memory
    • 4.3Executive working memory
    • 4.4Vocabulary size
  • 5.The current study
  • 6.Methods
    • 6.1Participants
    • 6.2Tasks
    • 6.3Phonological short-term memory
    • 6.4Working memory
    • 6.5Vocabulary measure
    • 6.6Oral response prompt task
    • 6.7Background questionnaire
    • 6.8Coding
      • 6.8.1Dependent variable
      • 6.8.2Independent variables
    • 6.9Analysis
  • 7.Results
    • 7.1Distribution of variants
    • 7.2Regression analyses
  • 8.Discussion
  • 9.Conclusion
  • References
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Zahler, Sara L., Danielle Daidone & Emily Kuder
2025. University Spanish instructors’ trill production within and outside of the language classroom. In Research at the Intersection of Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 43], ► pp. 144 ff. DOI logo

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