Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Second Language Pronunciation
Vol. 9:3 (2023) ► pp.362–383

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required
Full-length Article

Dialect-specificity and learners’ L2 perceptual resilience after study abroad

ORCiD logo with link | Elon University
Published online: 6 February 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.23004.sch
Abstract
The present study examined the perception of two regional variants of Spanish (theta /Ɵ/ and zheísmo/sheísmo [ʒ, ʃ]) by nonnative speakers of Spanish with and without study abroad experience. The study’s goals were to determine whether learners who study abroad accept regional variants more frequently than at-home learners, and whether this effect is limited to cues participants are exposed to while abroad. Participants were L1 English speakers asked to determine whether they considered real and nonce word pairs with matching and mismatching regional variants to be instances of the same word. The findings reveal higher acceptance rates of mismatching variants by L2 learners who had studied abroad than of classroom learners but results for specific location of study abroad that suggest learners likely build perceptual resilience while abroad that goes beyond the specific cues they are exposed to.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous Literature
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Stimuli and procedure
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Perception of matching or mismatching dyads and regional cues without exposure
    • 5.2Effects of study abroad experience
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
References (34)
References
Best, C. T., & Tyler, M. D. (2007). Nonnative and second-language speech perception: Commonalities and complementarities. In O. Bohn and Murray, M. (eds.), Language experience in second language speech learning: In honor of James Emil Flege, (1–47). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, J. (2006). From usage to grammar: The mind’s response to repetition. Language, 821, 711–733. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Grammatical and lexical factors in sound change: A usage-based approach. Language Variation and Change, 291, 273–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Castellanos, I. M. (1980). Sociolinguistic attitudes toward Caribbean Spanish. Lenguaje, 111, 73–91.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chappell, W., & Kanwit, M. (2022). Do learners connect sociophonetic variation with regional and social characteristics?: The case of L2 perception of Spanish aspiration. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 44(1), 185–209. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clopper, C. G., & Pisoni, D. B. (2004). Homebodies and army brats: Some effects of early linguistic experience and residential history on dialect categorization. Language Variation and Change, 16(1), 31–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Del Saz, M. (2019). Native and nonnative perception of western Andalusian Spanish/s/aspiration in quiet and noise. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41(4), 673–694. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escalante, C. (2018). ¡Ya pué[h]! Perception of coda-/s/ weakening among L2 and heritage speakers in coastal Ecuador. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages, 5(1), 1–26. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escudero, P. (2009). Linguistic perception of “similar” L2 sounds. In P. Boersma & S. Hamann (Eds), Phonology in Perception (pp. 151–190). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández-Mallat, V., & Carey, M. (2017). A matched-guise study on L2, heritage, and native Spanish speakers’ attitudes to Spanish in the State of Washington. Sociolinguistic Studies, 11(1), 175–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp. 233–277). York Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., & Bohn, O.-S. (2021). The revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r). In R. Wayland (Ed.), Second language speech learning: Theoretical and empirical progress (pp. 3–83). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, C., Chappell, W., & Martell, R. (2021). The diffusion of sheísmo and perceptions of porteñidad in Buenos Aires Spanish. In The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish (pp. 159–170). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. L. (2020). Variationist perspective(s) on interlocutor individual diff erences. In L. Gurzynski-Weiss, L. (Ed.), C ross-theoretical explorations of interlocutors and their individual diff erences (pp. 127–157). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. L., & Gudmestad, A. (2008). The acquisition of variation in second-language Spanish: An agenda for integrating studies of the L2 sound system. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 137–157.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
George, A., & Hoffman-González, A. (2019). Dialect and identity: US Heritage language learners of Spanish abroad. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 4(2), 252–279. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hay, J., & Drager, K. (2010). Stuffed toys and speech perception. Linguistics, 48(4), 865–892. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hay, J., Warren, P., & Drager, K. (2006). Factors influencing speech perception in the context of a merger-in-progress. Journal of phonetics, 34(4), 458–484. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howard, M., Lemée, I., & Regan, V. (2006). The L2 acquisition of a phonological variable: The case of/l/deletion in French. French Language Studies, 161, 1–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lafford, B. A. (2004). The effect of the context of learning on the use of communication strategies by learners of Spanish as a second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(2), 201–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niedzielski, N. (1999). The effect of social information on the perception of sociolinguistic variables. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18(1), 62–85. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pope, J. (2016). The role of social networks in the acquisition of a dialectal features during study abroad. In S. Sessarego & Tejedo-Herrero, F. (Eds.), Spanish language and sociolinguistic analysis, (pp. 177–196). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pozzi, R., & Bayley, R. (2021). The development of a regional phonological feature during a semester abroad in Argentina. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 43(1), 109–132. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Regan, B. (2017). A study of ceceo variation in Western Andalusia (Huelva). Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 10(1), 119–160. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ringer-Hilfinger, K. (2012). Learner acquisition of dialect variation in a study abroad context: The case of the Spanish [θ]. Foreign Language Annals, 45(3), 430–446. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, L. (2009). The effect of dialect familiarity via a study abroad experience on L2 comprehension of Spanish. In Selected proceedings of the 11th Hispanic linguistics symposium (pp. 143–154). Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, L. B. (2018). L2 development of perceptual categorization of dialectal sounds: A study in Spanish. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 40(4), 857–882. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2020). Role of developing language attitudes in a study abroad context on adoption of dialectal pronunciations. Foreign Language Annals, 531, 785–806. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022). Second language development of dialect awareness in Spanish. Hispania, 105(2), 267–284. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, L. B., & Geeslin, K. L. (2022). Developing language attitudes in a second language: Learner perceptions of regional varieties of Spanish. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics, 35(1), 206–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Segalowitz, N., & Freed, B. F. (2004). Context, contact, and cognition in oral fluency acquisition: Learning Spanish in at home and study abroad contexts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(2), 173–199. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trentman, E. (2013). Imagined communities and language learning during study abroad: Arabic learners in Egypt. Foreign Language Annals, 46(4), 545–564. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trimble, J. C. (2014). The intelligibility of Spanish dialects from the L2 learner’s perspective: The importance of phonological variation and dialect familiarity. International journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest, 33(2), 31–58.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Leussen, J.-W., & Escudero, P. (2015). Learning to perceive and recognize a second language: the L2LP model revised. Frontiers in Psychology, 61, 1–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Levis, John M.
2024. Key issues in L2 pronunciation research. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 10:3 ► pp. 293 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue