Age and native language influence on the perception of English vowels
Authors
Book Title
English with a Latin Beat: Studies in Portuguese/Spanish Interphonology
Editors
. B.O. Baptista & M. A. Watkins
Year
2006
Pages
57 - 69
DOI
Publisher
John Benjamins
Links
This paper examines the perception of English vowels by Spanish speakers. The research questions that motivated the study were the relevance of two factors that have been discussed widely in the literature on foreign language acquisition: age and native language influences. These two variables are analyzed within the framework of Flege’s Speech Learning Model (SLM). Discussion centres on the applicability of well-known age-related predictions and SLM proposals to sound perception in formal instruction, foreign language environments.