THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OP EXPER IMi!NTAL PSYCflOLOOY. 1991. 4JA 1l)70I- 7J1
The Interlingual Identification
of Spanish and English Vowels:
Orthographic Evidence
James Emil Flegc
Uniller3ity of Alabama at BirmingluJm , Alabama, U.S.A.
When IOmeone who is learning a ICOOnd ian,u.sc (ll) produces. lOund in the
L2 using. r.mili .... D.tive-Ianguage: (LI) calc,Ory. the L2 lOund i. uid 10 havc
been "identified with" an Llsound. Although interlin,uaJ identification cxerts
a powerful inOuence on II pronunciation. it is still poorly undentood.
Orthographic classification wu used here to UleSS the interlinaual identification or Spanish and English vowels. Sixty native speaken or Spanish in three
experiments judged the vowels fif. /I/. /r./. and leI in multipk: tokens of Enalish
words ("beal", "bil", "bet". "bal") spohn by teo native speaken or American
Enalish. The subjects labelled each Enalish vowel by cirelina one or the five
lellen uJed to spell the vowel phonemes of Spanish (viz. < i>. < e > . < a >.
<0>. < u » or by cireli na"none" irthey thought they had beard a vowel not
found in Spanish. Subjects wbo spoke Enalish as.n L2 IHCd the "none" label
more often than did Spanish monolinguals •• ugesling Ib.1 L2 learning
heightens bilinauals' awareness of cross-hinauagc: phonetic differe nces. Experienced Spanish speakers or English did use the "none" label more orten than
did inexperienced .ubjects (42-;. VI. 18·/.). A few .ubjects used the "noDe" label
consistently for lei and /1/. suggestina that they may have (Caarded these
vowels IS "new" (i.e., non-Spanish). However, the aroup dal. provided lillie
.upport for the hypothesis that the adult Spanish learnen of English treated
either /el or /1/ as new. The areat majority of .ubjects, even those highly
experienced io English, identi6cd Enali.h Ie/ with thei .. Spanisb I. '.
It is widely believed that adults will inevitably speak. a language learned after
childhood with a foreign accent (Lenneberg 1967). Scovel (1969, 1988)
claimed that foreign accents occur because or lost "plasticity" in "neuropsyfUquesu for reprints should be sent to J.mes Emil Fkae. Department of BiocoDUnUoica·
lion, Univ-emty of Alabama aI Binninpam. Bo.. 50) University Station, 8.inninJham,
AI.ba~ )5294-00111 USA.
Thi, JlOOyw •• lupportcd by NIH 11"01 DC00251. 1be . utbor IMob 0 ,-$. Bobn. L.Cueva,
C. Menl. and 1.. Skelton ror their conlributiolU 10 the IIOOy. Than.. Ire .110 ex~dcd 10 S.
Fletcher .nd M. Munro ror comments on In earlier venion or lhis Irticle.
C 1991 The Experimentsl PJ:ychololY Society
702
FlEGE
chological mechanisms" deriving from the completion of cerebrallateralization at around the age of 12 (see also Patkowski, 1990; but cf. Flege, 1987&,
Flege & Fletcher, submitted). Precisely which &spect(s) of speech learning
changes with age has not been identified by advocates of the critical period
hypothesis, but it is onen implied that processes that underlie sensorimotor
learning may become less effective as the result of neural maturation (Sapon
1952; Scovel, 1988, p.62). Some L2 production errors do, in fact, seem to
have a motoric basis (Flege, 1988c; Flege, McCutcheon, &:. Smith, 1987),1 but
many others may arise from the inaccurate perception of L2 sounds.! The
results of certain speech perception experiments suggest that adult learners of
an L2 do not have representations for some sounds in an L2, at least not at
first (e.g. Miyawaki et al ., 1975. Mochizuki, 1981; Sheldon &:. Strange 1982).
For other L2 sounds, adult learners have been observed to perform consistently, albeit not precisely like native speakers of Engli sh. In these instances,
the adultleamers appear to make use of native language (LI) representations
that differ from those of native speakers (e.g. Flege & Hillenbrand, 1985,
1987; Flege &:. Ecfung, 1986; Flege, 1989b; Flege & Wang, 1990).
It is generally agreed that speech perception is an obligatory process. l2
learners attempt to make perceptual sense of the sounds making up L2
words, regardless of whether or not they have an accurate (i.e. native-like)
perceptual representation for the L2 sounds. Unless they have managed to
establish phonetic categories for L2 sounds (see Flege, 1990; in press, at b),
adult learners will tend to iden tify unfamiliar L2 sounds in terms of an LI
category (Weinreich, 1953; Wade, 1977. 1978; see also Butcher, 1976). This
process, called "in terlingual identification", often amounts to fitting square
pegs into round holes. Adult learners' perceptual "errors" may not be
evident, however. because they often comprehend the L2 in the absence of
accurate phonetic perception by exploiting semantic context and their
knowledge of the world.
The occurrence of perceptual errors or mismatches in the processing of L2
words may be inferred. howev~r, from how adult learners pro"ou"c~ the l2 .
When an unfamiliar L2 sound has been identified with an acoustically
FIe.
, Fkae (1911k) aDd
el al. (1987) eummed lhe: produc:don orthe word·8MI Ea&lw.. ,p/by nati~ speaken or Chi-.. A ~anlfieant dilrerence in peak onll air pressure:
between EoaJilh /pl and fbI IUJ,&elted that the Chinese .ubject. produced tbete IOUnd.J with
different larynaeal artic:ulationt. However, they failed to 'Ultlin closure voic:in. in fbI (or IS kma
al native .peakers, apparently because they had not learned to cnlarlE the .upnalotlll cavity
actively durinllabU.1 clQ5ure ror fbI.
fbI contrast
'The tcnn "sound", as u.ed here. refers 10 a cia.. of phones Ihal can be uied 10 contrast
muninl. II il a terminological COnVenlc:1ICe Ihlt obvialet tM need 10 draw I diltinc:l}oo
constantly beIWe-eO Ihe phonetic and phonemic levell. For In expotidon or Ih ill theoretically
importaoJ d,lIincli6n. W F1l~ (in prell. I).
INTERLINGUAllDENTIFICATION
703
different sound in the L1. the LI sound may be used in place orthe L2 sound
(Valdman, 1976). Table I summarizes six studies that have reported on vowel
substitution errors in Spanish-accented English. The target vowels in this
table are those examined in the present study (viz. Iif. /II. f&l. and lref). The
six studies differed in many ways, including the L2 experience or the Spanish
subjecu examined, speech materials. and elicitation techniques. II is unclear
in many instances whether the "substitutes" reported were English vowels,
Spanish vowels, or a phonetic approximation or the intended English target
vowel. Several conclusions can nevertheless be drawn rrom Table I: (I)
Spanish speakers usually produce English !if as an [i1-quality vowel; (2) ir
they mispronounce /II, it is usually as an [iJ-quality vowel; and (3) ir they
mispronounce /&1. it is as an [e]-quality vowel.
One might also conclude rrom the data in Table I that Spanish learners or
English arc more variable in their mispronunciation or !re/ than that or other
rront. monophthongal English vowels. In producing /r./, they manirest both
mid-vowel ([e], fe']. [&)) and back-vowel ([aJ) substitutes. The usc or multiple
LI substitutes ror an unramiliar L2 sound, especially in ea rly stages or
learning (Hammarberg, in press). may mean Ihat an unramiliar L2 sound has
been judged to be perceptually equidislant rrom two or more LI sounds. It
might also be taken to mean that a particular L2 vowel docs not have a
readily identifiable counterpart in the LI.
None or the five Spanish vowels Ui, e. a, 0, ul) seems to match any or the
15 vowels or English. F1ege (1989a) round that the tongue is lower ror
English IiI and lu/ than ror the corresponding vowels or Spanish. and the
tongue is lower ror English IO/ lhan ror Spanish la/ (suggesting a narrower
pharyngeal cavity ror the English vowel). English !oUI and especially I~I are
mo re diphthongized than Spanish leI and 101 (Stockwell &. Bowen , 1965;
TABLE 1
Vowel Sut.tilUtion ErrOfl In
Englilh
TQ,.,~I
~Iisll VQ~I
Mfnl Fr~Ilr'"
SuJmitul~ R~JHNI~d
M
(ii'
'"
['F
(iJ'.J.I~""
/. /
I- I
[aJ' ...... (8r
' Brennan &. Brennan (1981);
• Hammond (1986):
I
FlcJC (1990)
• Amaltae (1918);
• Ornstein (1914);
• r.hcDonaki ( 1989).
S~nllh · Acc.nted
Ol~r &porf~d
SubJlilu/t1
Icl'
(81' [eJ' [e'r
704
FlEGE
Oalbor. 1980; Quiles, 1981; Flege, 1989a). Also, English vowels are generally
longer than Spanish vowels because they are lengthened more under stress
and in pre-pausal position (Delallre, 1966).
Wode (1977, 1978) suggested that there is a threshold beyond which an L2
sound will be recognized as distinct from any sound in the LI. A distinction
between "new" L2 sounds and those that are merely "sinlilar" 10 sounds in
the LI has been drawn by researchers (or several decades (De/allre. 1964,
1969; Briere, 1968), but no satisfactory metric now exists for determining
whether an L2 vowel will be treated as new or similar (see below).l Unlike
consonantal sounds. vowel sounds are discriminated readily even if they are
not classified differently.· One obstacle to cla55ifying L2 vowels as new \'S.
similar has been uncertainty as to whether the distance between vowels in
two languages is judged in terms of an auditory,' phonetic, or phonemic
melric (see below). The qUC5tion raised in this study was whether Spanish
speakers would come to recognize that any of the front , monophthongal
vowels of American English are new (i.e. non-Spanish).
Orthographic Classification
The present study examined patterns of interlingual identification that might
be responsible for vowel production errors like those in Table 1. Native
Spanish subjects were asked to label English vowels with one of the letters
used to write the five vowel phonemes of Spanish «i>, <e>. <0>,
<a>, < u ». The vowels they were asked 10 label (viz. /i/. /I/. /E/./Zl)
occurred in evc words spoken by native speakers of American English.
I F1cje (in preu, a) ditcus.scd method.tl Ihat milht be uted to operallonalh:e the: dillinction
belwc:c:n DCW and similar L2 soundJ. A similar U sound may be defined a. a aound that ill
rcprelCntc:d by the: same: IPA symbola. a sound In the LI, provided it C8n be .hown to differ
auditorily from the correspondinl LI sound. New JOund •• on the: other hand, may be defined as
L2 sounds that a re rcprexnted by an IP" symbol not uKd for Iny aound in the: LI (and, of
courtc:, which differ auditorily from the: nearest LI sound). Problems with this approach do nillt.
hmona-. especially with the "symbol" lett (tee, e .l .. Footnote: .).
• Phoneticians have Ionldcbatcd whether tranxriptKIn. ofvo_1t Ihould be detailed eoouah
to represent any mxJjttNiJy Ikt«tDhh difference between vowels or just differenc:a that under-lie
word contrasts In I particular taniUaae. It i. uncertain hOW' many different distinct vo_l
"typtt" there are. Ladefop (\9119) estimated that an upc:rt phonetician mi&ht be capable of
identiryinl u many u 200 vowels in absolute tr:md.
'The ute of an auditory-based meuic to tvalu.te the reiatiolUhip bet1ll'Otn vowtls in Iwo
Ianlu.JCI cannot beditcOunled. Spanish and Enalilh listeners in the: F1ece etal. (in preparation)
lIudy pve much the: AInt rcsponJc:t to pairs of vo_I, that were libelled differentially. For
uamplc:, both Iroupl rated Spilni.h /i/-/al pili ... to be morc: dissimilar than 1i/-/c:J pain; and
both aroupl rated the li/-/e/ PIli... as more dissimIlar than /e/-/a/ pIIirs Such _ir«ment betwc:c:n
aroupl implicsthe: uiltence o f a univerulauditory-baaed dl.llnce metric. Interliniual companIOn. baled on luditory representation. would be elJlC'Cted to differ at timc:l from thOle: balled on
ttpreuntltionl of phonetic quality (see, C.I., Klal!. 1987. Fi&UfC 31).
INTERLINGUAL IDENTIFICATION
705
Orthographic classification was a plausible technique for investigating inlerlingual identification because Spanish vowels (unlike those in English) stand
in a one-to-one relationship with letters. It has been used successfully by Wiik
(1965, cited by Flege, 1988b) to examine the classification of English vowels
by native speakers of another language with "phonemic" spelling (i.e.
Finnish).
Subjects in the present study were also pennitted 10 use the label "none".
This label provided a means for detennining whether any of the English
vowels were judged to fall outside the bounds of the Spanish vowel system.
Results obtained by Butcher (1976) suggested that adult subjects can use
"none" appropriately. In Ihat study, French and English subjects were asked
to label a set of cardinal vowels that differed to varying degrees from Ll
vowels. The English but not the French subjects used "none" frequently to
label front rounded (fY/. 10/. ler./) and nasalized vowels (/!/. /d/, /3f). These
vowels differed substantially from any English vowel but were similar 10
vowels in French.
Level of Analysis
Perception research suggests that speech sounds are processed at three
successive levels: auditory, phonetic, and phonemic (see Elman, Diehl, &.
Buchwald, 1977; Repp, 1981 ; Pisoni, Aslin, Perey, &. Hennessey, 1982;
Werker & Logan. 1985; Werker, Klein. & Logan, 1986; Mann. 1986). It is
uncertain at which leveJ(s) interlingual identification occurs. Bilingualsjudge
interlingual distances by comparing incoming L2 phones to perceptual
prototypes in long-tenn memory (Best, McRoberts, & Sithole, 1988; Flege.
1984, 1988a. 1988b).' The orthographic classification technique employed in
the present study probably favoured the use of pho nemic representations
(Mann, 1986), but it was also possible that th~ subjects would be influenced
by representations at other processing levels.
Catford ( 1968) slated thai the basis for interlingual identification is
"substantial rather than fonnal" (p. 164). This implies that the L1 prototype
against which L2 phones are gauged may be phonetic in nature (Briere,
1966), not phonemic, as usually supposed (e.g. Trubetzkoy 1939; Scholes,
1968a, 1968b; Best et al., 1988). The distinction between phonetic and
phonemic levels can be illustrated with reference to Spanish leI, a vowel
phoneme with two allophones. 7 Spanish leI is realized as an (e)-quality vowel
• Bilinluals miplIQeJI11K: diSlancc belween Lt and L2 sou nd, by implicitly complrin,liM:
needed 10 produce Ihem (tee Scholet, l%Bbl, bul lhere it I. yel no evideDIZ ror lhis
'lbe lilophona or Spflnish leI .re In tompk:menuu)' dislributiOfl - I""1 iI., lhey oc:c:ur in
mUlually ClIclusi~ phOnel1t ton lcalS. 8c:CIIUIC or Ihis, lei Ind III cannol be used 10 tonlratl
meanin! in Spanish.
6UIIH"U
706
FLEGE
in most closed syllables. These variants are said 10 "match" the vowel in
Engli sh "bet" (Dalbor, 1980), a claim supported by a recent L2 vowel
intelligibility study (Flege, 1990).1 As suggested by the symbol used to
represent it, Spanish leI may be implemented as [e) in other contexts (most
open syllables except those preceding Irl, and in closed syllables ending in lsI
or IzJ). American English I~/ , on the other hand, is implemented with a
single allophone (viz. [e')).'
Spanish leI shows some formant movement, but not nearly as much as the
diphthongal English le'I (Flege, Munro, & Fox, in preparation). In a study
using g1ossometry, Flege (1989a) found that the average tongue position used
for the (e) allophone of Spanish leI was intermediate between the tongue
positions observed in the "onglide" and "offglide" of English Ie'/. It is
uncertain whether bilinguals will identify a diphthongal L2 vowel with a
monophthongal L1 vowel. It is also uncertain how they will deal with
differing dittributions of allophones for phonemes in their two languages. If
interlingual identification occurs at a phonemic level, then Spanish speakers
of English should consistently identify the realizations of English 1&1in terms
of the Spanish leI phoneme. The error data in Table I indirectly supports this
view.
There is reason to suppose, however, that interlingual identification does
not occur exclusivtly at an abstract, phonemic level. If Spanish speakers
compare English vowels to the Spanish leI phoneme, then their judgements
should be influenced by the properties of both the [e) and [e] allophones of
that phoneme. A recent study by Flege et al. (in preparation) suggests that
this does not happen, at least not in certain tasks. Spanish and English
subjects used a 9-point scale to rate pairs of CV syllables for degree of
dissimilarity. Some pairs contained realizations of English I~I and leI. Had
the Spanish subjects based their judgements on a phonemic representation,
they should have judged the [~HeJ pairs 10 be more dissimilar than the
English subjects because, for them, [e] phones would be associated via
phonemic representations with [e] phones. However, the Spanish subjects
judged the [ItHe) pairs to be less dissimilar than did the native English
subjects (3.1 vs. 4.2, p - O.OOJ).ID
'In thlt . tudy, Spanilb spc:aken produced Enali'h "beat", "bit", "bet", and "bat". lbdr (t:1
auemptt were identified colTtlClJy by nali~ Enalish Jillmnw in mOlt inltancea, but not their
attempts It Enalilb {il,/t!, and lrel. II remainalo be ICen whelher SpaniJh learnen ofEnSIiJh will
be .utUllfuJ in producin, /' 1 in phonetic oonlexll in whkh lhe reJ allophone of Spanish leI
would be expected, for eXimple in words like "Bess", "meg", "AYS".
'The qualilY of Ibis vowel varies, of oounc - ror eXimple, the otr&lKk of le'I may nol be
reached &I a fUI .peakinJ nle.
" ThiJ ..me kind of reuonin, can be applied 10 CV ptlin conlainin. reali u tiolUl of En.lish
I&/.nd Spanilh leI. If . ubjecll used phonemic· leve! repr_nlalions exclusively for loch paitt.
one would expecl/ell peroeived dissimilarily fo r Sp!lnilh Iban English lubject. bea.\ae Ihe [II)
INTERlINGUAllDENTIFICATION
707
Changes in Interlingual Identification
In addition to unrcsolved qucstions pertaining to the processing Icvcl(s) at
which interlingual identification occurs, it is uncertain whether patterns of
interlingual identification will change as L2 learners grow familiar with the
L2 sound system. A change in interlingual identification may be more likcly
for certain L2 sounds than others.
Somc L2 sounds arc virtually identical to those in the Ll (Bohn & Flege,
submitted), but most differ from any Ll sound, if only in the details of
timing, amplitude, or placement of articulatory constrictions. It was once
believed that cross-language differences were the primary source of speech
lcarning difficulty (e.g. Stockwell & Bowen , 1965; Briere, 1968). This leads
one to expect that L2 sounds that match an II sound closely will be
produced authentically whereas those that do not match an LI sound closely
will be produced poorly. It may be, howcver, that a "U"-shaped rather than
a Iincar function best describes Ihe effect of varying diffcrences between LI
and L2 sounds. That is L2 sounds that match an Ll sound closely, or else
diffcr cotl3ilJerably from any sound in thc Ll may be produced authcntically,
whereas L2 sounds that partially rcsemblc an LI sound may be pronounced
poorly.
I have hypothesized that " ncw" l2 sounds will stop being identified with
LI sounds at somc point in L2 learning, whcreas "similar" L2 sounds will
continue being idcntified with an LI sound (Flege, 1988b; 1990; in press, a, b;
see also Ollcr & Ziahosseiny, 1970; Wade, 1977, 1978). As a result, adult
learners may be ablc to eSlablish phonctic catcgorics for ncw L2 sounds and
cvcntually produce thcm authentically. Similar L2 sounds may prove 10 be
the most difficult kind of sound for adult learners because, by hypothesis,
they continue to be identified with Ll sounds (which blocks the phonetic
category formation needed for authentic production). In support of this,
several studies have shown that vowels not found in thc LI invcntory are
produced more authcntically than are L2 vowels that differ acoustically from
a counterpart in the LI (Mucller & Niedzielski 1963; Flcgc, 1987b; Major,
allophone o( Spanilh leI i. uid to match En,li,h /el realizations. IJutead. the Spaniu. li,tene...
rlted (e)-lel pai... • 1 more diHimilar th.n Enalish lislenel'l (• .1 v•. ] .9. p * O.OII). One olher
recentlludy point. to the opera lion of pho netk:-Icvel procuses. In I II00Y by flege (ubmitled).
Spanish and Ena1i,h lubjecll atimaled dellree o( rhyme in Enatilh word •. Both aroup' nlled
pain o( Enalilh word. with /t!/ aDd /el (e., . "mate"- "mel") 10 rhyme equally, bUI lhey pve
diifen:ntrltil'p (or other word (>IIi .... II w.. wumed IlIat the Spanilh lubjecu would idenlif'y
English J~/ with their Spanish /ct. and thai vowels c1.uilied u beiDJIthe same "will rhyme more
th.n those clauilied u diKerent". Ilad the rhymin,judaemenlJ been made at a phOMmlC 1e~1,
therefon:, the Spanish lubjccu .houk! have pellZived • ,Rller dearec or rhyme lhan did the
En&li~h lub~U,
708
FLEGE
1987; Bohn & Flege, 1990; but cf. Flege, 1990}. There is also some
preliminary evidence that L2 consonants thai are unlike any in the LI may be
produced more authentically than L2 consonants that differ acoustically
from an LI counterpart. II
Figure 1 shows the distribution of formant values for six English vowels
(/i,I,E,t.e,O,Uf) spoken by 30 male native speakers of American English
(Peterson & Barney, 1952) and the five Spanish vowels spoken by 16 native
Spanish males (Godinez, 1978). In agreement with articulatory data (Flege,
1989a), English Ii! and luI are lower in the F,- F) space than Spanish iii and
/u/, and English 10/ is posterior to Spanish la/. The data in Figure 1 largely
agree with a study of Argentine Spanish (Guirao & de Manrique, 1972,
1975), which showed that the distribution for Spanish iii fell within the
ellipse for American English Ii/ (Peterson & Barney, 1952). Data reported by
Skelton (1969; sec also Quiles, 1981 ; Navarro Tomas, 1950) suggest that this
would not be true if the relatively open allophone of /if in closed syllables had
been included. The data in Figure I agree with the Argentine Spanish data in
showing that realizations of leI fell entirely within the space occupied by
American English It/ (see also Pa~un, 1976; Ladefoged, 1975). The Argentine data for leI and that shown in Figure I may be misleading, however,
because only the (e) allophone of /el was examined . Had [E) allophone tokens
been included, the Spanish leI ellipse in Figure I would probably have
encompassed much of the F,- F l space occupied by English lEI (see Skehon,
1969).
If interlingual identification were based on proximity in a psychological
space resembling the F,- F J space in Figure I. we might expect the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
English Ii/ will be identified with Spanish li/;
English /II will be identified with Spanish le/, IiI;
English let will be identified with Spanish leI;
English /IEI will not be identified consistently with a Spanish vowel.
" Best et.1. (1988) provided pcrceptu.l evidence that Bantu clkks may be sufficiently distinct
from .ny En&lish ronson.nt that they are not identified in lenns or.n English category. No L2
production "udy, 10 my Imowled,e, hal uamined dick production. Such • study would be
proble:m"ic:al, however, becalUCclickiare likely 10 occur Kldom in human lanpuget because
Ihey ue c:omplu .rtkul.torily. (Thi. would work againn the hypothesis th.! new L2 soundli
will be IlUIJlered.) Seveml studies examined the production or Enlli.h /r/ . ad 11/ by J.panese
speaken. These sounds might be n:prdcd u new, for tlic:re is 00 /II in J.panex .nd thc: J'pan_
/f/ is n:.Jized u a voiced tip-alveot.r n.p (_ F1e,e, 198&b, for a review). Speech production and
pcroeption rex.o::h hu sugested that at aJl lOme native 'l'C'kerJ or Japa nese can mlJter the
!r/-fli oonlra" ofEnglilh (M.cKain CI al., 1981 ; Mochizuki, 198t ; Sheldon &: Stnmgc, 1912; IlOl:
.110 flc:JC. 1988b). RQearc:h examinin, simil.r L2 stopt, on the other hand, indic8.le Ihat lhey
will.eldom if ever be mutered by .dult arnen (F1ete, 1991).
INTERLINGUAl.lDENTIFICATlON
1500
1000
709
'" '"
'"
.00
..
S/-/ ',
..•
\
•,
.
....
'
:'
i-,
'or
:' .. _.'
•
\
.
,,
,
"01
,
,,
00
"
..
••,
, •
: ...
.
...
'00
S/ a/
,,
.00
'.
.00
FIG. I. Fonnlnt frequency vllues for $II. Ena.li.h vowell (/i/. /tI.lcl./rt/.lo/./uf) lpoken by JO
mile native apelken of American and En,li.h (Peteflon & Blmey. 1952) Ind five Spanish
vowel, (IiI. le/./I/./o/. luf) spokcn by 16 male nltive 'peskcn ofSpilni.h (Godincl., 1918), in
mell. The elliptel define 95 ~. confidence limits; they IrC baxd on Ih.c two principle componcnlt
of vlriltion in F, Ind F, values.
Prediclion (I) agrees with mults obtained in a cross-language perceptual
study by Scholes (1967). summarized in Table 2. In that study, English and
Spanish subjects used keywords from their L1, or the label "none", to
identify a matrix of 69 isolated synthetic vowels in which F. and F)
frequencies were varied. The vowels typically heard as IiI by native English
subjects were also heard as Ii! by the Spanish subjects. In agreement with the
error analyses in Table I, but in apparent disagreement with Prediction (2)
above, [I)-quality vowels were always heard as IiI by Scholes' Spanish
subjccts, never as lel- Il Prediction (3), as stated , would be true only if
interlingual judgements are made exclusively at a phonemic level. The
finding that [£J-quality vowels were sometimes identified as " none" by
"One re..o n for caution in reprds 10 Scholes' (1961) '" dltl il that just o ne of Inc 69
.ynlhcl;c vowcl stimuli was heard consiltentl y by En,lilh . ubjecu IS /tI, problbly ba:ausc Inc
.Iimuli were 400mJeC lana.
TABLE 2
Tabulation of PerceplUll Olta Aeported by
Scholn (1967).
Labdlinl by nalive Spini.h listenerl or vowell typically
claSIified .. fil. le/. Jat./o"',. or /UI by nalive ipelker.
EnaJish
or
SwNIs TyplaJlly
CkuJ/fid by
Eitf/Wt Swbjrcu
III
N
Huud by Spmdslr Swbju/J
s-d
100
100
100
III
M
~,
/<'/
'"
,-,
,.,
lolil
lui
1<,
,.,
"OM
/. /-100%
/01-100%
"OM
.."
"
..
72
"OM
lui
P~UflI
100
100
u.bc:Uin, by native EnaJish listeners or VQwel. Iypkatly
clauilied as IiI. /e/. /_/. /0/. or luI by nuive SP'lnish .pc.ken
SOlUltU Typkt3l1y
C/IW/fitd by
SpanisJr Subjwl
!ltQrd by &.11," , SwbjHu
.so-d
M
N
~,
,-,
'"
,-,
'"
10/
10
/01
"OM
J]
'01
N
/01
lui
,U,
710
'"
20
"
"12
,.12
"OM
'"
Perunl
29
.
,.
11
lO
INTfRLlNGUAL IDENTifiCATION
711
Scholes' Spanish subjects suggcsted Ihat Iheir judgements were based, at least
in part. on phonetic-level representations. IJ
Perhaps the most interesting observation to be drawn from Scholes' (1967)
data is that the Spanish subjccts seemed to usc the "none" response
predominantly to label (Ie]-quality vowels. This agrees with the acoustic data
in Figure 1 and is consistent with the observation that Spanish speakers of
English mispronounce English Iz/ in a variety of ways (Table I). This may
mean that /z / emerges as a new vowel for native Spanish learners of English.
Such a conclusion is be no means certain, however, because Scholes made usc
of isolated synthetic vowels. The subjects might have used the "none"
response because some incidental property of the stimuli (e.g. duration)
diverged from values specified in their central representation of the closest
Spanish vowel.
Decisions as to whether a vowel is "different" from any L1 vowel may be
influenced by responsc biascs and perhaps subtle alpec:l5 of experimental
design, such as the wording of instructions. The criterion used here to
determine whether an English vowel emerges as "new" was the pattern of
behaviour observed for groups of native Spanish subjects differing in
English-language experience. Experiment I examined Spanish subjects who
had little or no prior exposure to English (Le. Spanish monolinguals).
Experiments 2 and 3 examined Spanish speak:ers of English who differed in
L2 experience. Experiment 3 differed from the first two experiments in using
instructions that encouraged subjects to use the " none" label. If English 11£/
emerges as a new vowel, we would expect Spanish speakers of English to use
the "none" label for /1£/ more often than Spanish monolinguals but not to
differ from the monolinguals in the frequency with which "none" is applied
to other English vowels. If L2 learners recognize only gradually that certain
L2 vowels are new, we might see no difference between inexperienced Spanish
speakers of English and Spanish monolinguals, but observe the kind of
difference just described between relatively experienced and inexperienced
Spanish speakers of English .
EXPERIMENT 1
Method
Ten native speakers of English (5 males, 5 females) living in Birmingham,
Alabama, read a randomized list containing multiple repetitions of English
"beat", " bit", "bet", and "bat". The first three repetitions of each word were
"Thi, i, e.peci.lJ)' true: alven thai the Spa.nllb .ub)OC11 were offered 110'0 Spa.nidl keyword,
wilh which 10 I.beltbe I),nlhelic vowell - one lluil contained the '11.lIophone (vR. ,,,,.) .nd one
with the lei .lIophone (viz. tk).
712
FI..EGE
lowpass-liltered at 4.8 kHz and digitized at 10 kHz with 12-bit amplitude
resolution. The formant frequencies of all 120 words (10 talkers)( 4
vowels)( 3 repetitions) were estimated using LPC analysis (14 coefficients for
males, 12 for females) by placing a 25.6-msec Hamming window at the
acoustic midpoint. Fundamental frequency (FO) measurements were based
on the duration of three suocessive glottal periods al the vowel midpoint.
"Vowel" duration was measured (in msec) from the onset to the offsct of
periodicity in each waveform .
Table 3 presents the mean acoustic values for me five female talkers who
produced the English IbVtl words used as stimuli in Experiments 1- 3. Table
4 presents the mean values for the five male talkers. As expected, Iii was
longer than /II, and Izl was longer than lEI. Also as expected, FO was slightly
higher for the two high vowels (IiI, I II) than for the two non-higb vowels (lEI.
Izj). For the most part, the formant frequency values reported in Tables 3
and 4 correspond to values published for American English by Peterson Bnd
Barney (1952).
In figure 2 the l!i tokens of each vowel obtained from the male talkers are
plotted in an F.- F] space along with ellipses defining native Spanish males'
productions of the Spanish vowels l i/. leI. la/. 10/. and luI (Godinez. 1978).
All but one English Iii token fell within the ellipse for Spanish Iii. Most of me
English /II tokens fell within the Spanish leI ellipse. One English /e/ loken fell
within the leI ellipse, but most fell outside any Spanish ellipse (usually closer
to Spanish leI than l a/). None of the English Iz / tokens fell within a Spanish
vowel ellipse, but most were slightly closer to Spanish la/ than le/.
Tbe 120 English IbVtl words were normalized for peak intensity. then
recorded on audio tape (Marantz PMD 420) for later playback to subjects.
Two randomizations of the 12 words spoken by each talker (4 words x 3
repetitions) were recorded . The five male talkers were recorded on Side A of
the tape. the five females on Side B. The interval between each word was fixed
at 2.5 sec. The interval between talkers was 10 sec. Sides A and B were
presented binaurally over headphones in a sound-booth to 20 monolingual
speakers of Spanish. The paid subjects (11 males, 9 females) had a mean age
of27 years (S.D.- 9). Each reported having normal hearing. Most subjects
had been in the United States for only several weeks at the time of testing.
Fourteen were from Mexico. five were from EI Salvador, and onc was rrom
Argentina. It is not known what influence. if any. the variations in native
dialect of Spanish may have had on the results.
A native Spanish research assislant read instructions in Spanish 10 the
SUbjects. They were lold to identiry the vowel in each word by circling < i >.
< e >, < a >. < 0 >, or < u > on a specially prepared answer sheet, or by
circling " ninguno" (none) if they heard a vowel "nol found in Spanish ". The
subjects were told to guess jf they were uncertain . The words spoken by one
talker (24 :!limuli) WC:[G prC5c:nlc:d for practice: before: the: e:Jlpc:riment begltn ,
INTERLlNGUALIDENTIFICATION
113
TABLE 3
Duration' and FrequenCV- in tha Vowel. Found in
" Beet", "Bit", "Bet", and " Bat" .. Spoken by
Five Adult Famala Nail..,. Spnke •• 01 American
Engll. h
Yowtl
fiI
To/ktr
,,,
,•
M
N
,,
•,
M
I-I
,
•,
]
M
I- I
,,
]
•,
M
Ow.
'"
'"
19'
'36
'46
.
'"
' 43
'79
FI
F1
F3
329
26"
)107
322.
H.
.
,..
213
'93
19'
H2
,
37.
3620
368'
'.82 ,m
,>" "'58
2728
'41'
"'
"
'44
'"
'22
'87
"".,.,
'" "'" ""
14'
'" 208. "'''
,m
21.
"' 19. .,.
,
,
'"
'45
"" lOll
'" '" ...
"
...
2100
'47
'" '"' 94 '" 208' ""
""65.
'" 15'
'" m "'" ""
"'41
'" '68'92'61 ,.,'"'"
278'
, , '84'
'66
171
J60
204
20'
.
...
2096
223'
21S2
'16
2182
204]
137
731
206
'86
'84
...
.
2856
]1)10
1928
276)
II.
2037
292 1
'16
'900
'86]
209
182)
1915
2041
2611
'85
'"
• Duration in 01IeC.
• Frequency in Hz. Nor,..
16]
.
£a,ch lalkh" mean .1 bued on three tokenl .
Half of the subjects heard a male talker on Side A for practise, the other half
a female talker on Side B. This may have b«:n insufticient in a few instances,
A total 5.5';' of the data, all from three subjects, had to be discarded because
ofmiHing responses. I'
.. Each liltener muked 24 answer. in telponIC to the vowels or the 10 talken., a. required,
but the three liJlenrr.jusl mentioned probllbty did not rCfpond 10 every word a.r If w/Uprtunltd
(continued overlear)
714
FLEGE
TABLE 4
Duration' and Frequency" In the Vowel. Found In
"Baat'", "Blf', " BeC, and "e.f' .. Spoken by
Five Adull Male Native Speakers of ArTl8fican
English
$10_1
II
TQJk~,
Dw.
f1}
FI
F1
1
2
III
111
II>
26'
322
2n)
164
202
104
312
2044
2512
,
,•
AI
'"
1
,,,
2
M
'"
,,
,
2
AI
/. /
2
)
•,
AI
'"
234
'"
108
120
1"
146
'"1>1
2260
2876
3007
109
2]65
2962
102
111
117
""
'"
""
461
"46
2451
279
.
I"
107
."
'"
."
1S55
"68
Illl]
183.5
1821
11Il7
10'
80
180
101
'"
'"
""
231
.
... '" "" "
'" '"
.,.
161
273
223
300
)111
2'"
'21
"'
"
"' ''''
21'
".'" ""
m
"'
160
247
FJ
10)
81
"'
"
2139
""
"48
""
264'
"09
1430
2288
11125
2694
"79
'"
711
"34
2582
1926
2604
766
168)
1>30
22"
69'
2615
701
661
1...
2'"
2738
707
"44
2'"
17)9
• Duration in msec .
• Frequency in Hz.
NOIr:
Each talker mean is hued on three loiF:erlJ.
in the few bkJcb. II appears thaI these listener. missed a response but attempted to conceal this
fael by markin, an . nswcr(l ) at the end of the answer sheet .Ocr the last word had been
presented, raulting in rc:sPOIlKl that were out of sequence with tbe stimuli . All dala obtained in
response to. JHorlN;:ul.ar Ullker were discarded if two or more obviously inappropriate responllCS
were obtained for thallalter. "Inappropriatc" was defined here as an 0::: a > response for eithcr
"bear' (/bill) or "bil" ({bill). IIICrolI hi&hly unlikely that such a response could be anythinJ
other than a miSlike,
INTERLINGUAllDENTIFICATlON
715
F2 In • • h
r--'---r---r--,-_"C'T'"'~r--'---r---r-c"',',~'~r--'__-r---r--l"r'=-,'"
I
,
--
...
--- ---...,,
,\_-- - : :----
,
,, "
"',
","
...... "
..
_---/-- ... ,
-,
,',
~.?-
' "
,'
t.,1
• .. "
JI
I
\
S .... nl.1I
_ r III
_ ~
1. 1
,... _ -
60'
'
/
/
I
/
/
, "
'"
. .... ni .... / 01
\.
o
'"
••
1
100 S
o
Cn911.11 / 1/ t oll:....
II
1"'i!1 1. 1I / 1/
o
1t"'i!1I . 11 III t ot.n.
t ol< .. n.
1"911.11 I ",! t~~
.00
- 900
I 'h l - 0 I ,e l _+
FlO, 2. The F,- F, values (in mels) in vowel tokenl spoken by S male native lpea-ken: or
American En,liah thai wen: IUICd al Itimuli in &perimcmtl 1- 1. The e.lIipICI define the. Spanilh
vowell fil./e/./I/./o/. fuI) u spoken by 16 mile native lpeakers or Spanish (Godinez. (971).
The frequency with which <i>. < e > . < a > . < 0 > , < u > , and "none"
were used by each subject to label the four English vowels was computed.
For all but the three subjects just mentioned, the frequencies for each vowel
were based on 60 responses (10 native English talkers )( 3 replicate tokens)( 2
randomizations). T·tcsts were performed to determine whether a particular
response was used to label each vowel at a rate significantly exceeding zero.
Since 24 t-lests were performed (4 vowels )( 6 possible response labels), an
alpha level of 0.004 was used to give an experiment-wise error ratc of 0.10
(Snedecor & Cochran, 1980).
Results and Discussion
Figurc 3 shows the mean frequency with which < i > . < e > , < a > , < 0 >,
< u > , or "nonc" was used to labellhc English vowels. An asterisk in this
figure and those to follow indicates that a response label was used at a
significantly above-chance rate (p < O. iO). The Spanish subjccts' most frequent response ror both Englifih fiI lind {If vowels was < i > (94~. , 68%),
716
FLEGE
-.
=.
CJ ;
100
80
","0
""" none
u
c::sJ
01 the obove
•
•
c
0
~
.":s
60
..
'0
c
•
:E
•
20
a
English Vowel
FIG. 3. The meIIn percentage of inillnea in which the monolio,ual Spanish ,ubjects in
I UICd tbe < i >. <e>, <'>, <0>, < u > •• nd " oone" labels for the vowels in
"beat", "bi!". "bet",.Dd "bat" ({I/./If./tI. I E/). Responses thai were Jiven significantly more
ofic n lhan UfO Ire m.rked by an ulcrbk; the error ban enclole :t I S.E.
~perimmt
suggesting that they identified both English vowels in terms of the Spanish IiI
phoneme. The subjects also gave a few < e > and "nonc" responses for /1/
(190/.,12%), but not at abovc-<:hance ratcs. The most frequent response for
English /£/ was < c > (81 %). The subjects also used < a> to label English /£I
in a small (13%) but significant number of instances. The most frequent
response for 11£/ was <a> (71 %), but <e> was also used at an abovechance rate (17';').
The results for Iii and lEI agree with the acoustic and perceptual results
presented in the Introduction. The results for /II agree better with Scholes'
(1967) perceptual data than an inference drawn from acoustic data, viz. that
/1/ would be identified frequently with Spanish leI. Perhaps the relatively
short duration of the English III. or its centring offglide (F1ege et a!.. in
preparation), distinguished it from Spanish Ie/. The most surprising result
was the one oblained for Iz/. Previo usly published acoustic data showed that
this English vowel is about midway between Spanish lei and lal in an F1- F1
space (Figure I) - that is, Izl does not seem to occupy a portion of the
acoustic vowel space exploited by a Spanish vowel . The particular 11£1tokens
used here (at least the males' ) fell outside any Spanish vowel ellipse. They
were only slightly closer, perhaps, to the Spanish la/ than Ie/. This, taken
IOgelhee wilh Ihe finding Ihal Ihe Spani,h ,ubj,,!! in Sohal,,' (1967) 'Iudy
onen applied the "none" label to [1£]-quality vowels, suggests that Spa nish
INTERUNGUAL IDENTIFICATION
717
monolinguals would not identify Enalish ltel in tenns of a Spanish vowel
calegory.
The Spanish monolingual subjccll nevertheless identified lrel consiSiently
whh the Spanish /a/. Thus the labelling data obtained in this experiment
suggestlhat Spanish learners of English do flor lreal English /ICI as new. This
conclusion is consistent with the results of a recent intelligibility study. Flege
(1990) found that Spanish speaken' attempts at lrel in the word bat were
identified by American English listeners as fI or 101 in over one· fourth of
inslances. This relatively bigh frequency of misperccption. does not prove
that Spanish leamen: fail to establish a category for ltel. but it is at least
consistent with that interpretation.
EXPERIMENT 2
Experiment 2 further explored the extent to which Sp/lni.h speakers of
English will note a difference between English Iii. /II, le/, Iz / and vowels
found in their Ll. More specifically. the purpose of Experiment 2 was to
determine whether native Spanish speaken: of English would use the "none"
label.ignificantly more often Ihan the monolingual subjccts in Experimenl I,
and significantly more often for lrel than for the other three English vowels
examined .
Method
The stimuli from Experiment I were presented to 20 native Spanish speakers
of English living in Birmingham, Alabama. The mean age of the subjccts (10
male., 10 female) was 29 years (S.D . - 6). They had arrived in the United
Stales at an average age of 2S years (S.D . - 6) and estimated using English
aboul 6S ~. of the time on a daily basis (S.D.- 19). The subjecu differed
considerably in terms of l2 experience. Lenglh of residence in Ihe United
Stales ranged from 4 months 10 10 yean (M - S years, S.D.- S). Ten
" inexperienced" subjects had lived in the United States for only 0.8 years, on
the average, and 10 " experienced" subjects had lived in the United Stales for
6.8 years. A lotal of 4% of the data was declared missing (see Footnote 14).
The frequency with which the six response categories «i > , < e > , < a > ,
<0>, < u >, "none" ) were used to label the four English vowels was
calculaled as before.
Results and Discussion
A series of Mann---Whitney lests were carried out on the frequency data to
detenmne whelher the 10 experienced and the 10 inexperienced subjects
responded differently. In many instances a response label was not used at all,
or only mllIgiolllly, Tcna wcr, clfri,d out only if a label was used in at least
S% of instances overall. This criterion was mel in 12 instances. A 0.004 alpha
718
FLEGE
level was used for the 12 tests to give an experiment-wise error rate of 0.05
(Snedecor & Cochran , 1980).
No difference between the experienced and inexperienced speakers of
English was significant. Only two between-group differences approached
significance. The experienced subjects gave more < e > responses to lEI than
did the inexperienced subjects (S7 ~. vs. 31 % ); conversely, they gave fewer
< a > responses to /EI than did the inexperienced subjects (26% vs. 53 1/1)
[U - 21 .5, p - O.028; U - 18.0, p - 0.015). These tendencies suggest that Spanish subjects who are relatively inexperienced in English may have difficuhy in
relating English lEI to the (E) allophone of Spanish lei if it occurs in an
unfamiliar phonetic context (i.e. preceding a word-final stop).
The responses obtained for the experienced and inexperienced speakers of
English have been combined in Figure 4 because none of the between-group
differences was Slalistica.lly significant. English /iI was labelled as < i > in
840/, of instances. English /II received the following responses at abovechance rates: < e > (39 ~1 ), < i > (36 110), and "none" (21°/1). An inference
drawn from acoustic analyses of Spanish and English vowels in the Introduction was that English /II might be identified more closely with Spanish lei
than with Spanish Ii/. The response pattern obtained here in Experiment 2 is
more consistent with this inference than is the response: pattern obtained in
-
=
100
;
e
"'" •
•
fZ2l
0
""" "
CSJ none
80
60
.0
20
0
English Vowel
FIG. 4. The mel n percenta sc or instaOCCI in which the Spanilh spuken of Enalish in
Experiment 2 uJc:d < i >, < c >, < a > . <0>, < u >. and " no ne" a l labell for the \lowell in
"beal", " bil". "bel", and "bit" (/i/.N./I/./a/). Data for experienced and ineJlpcric:nccd native
Spanisb speakers o f EnJlish ba ve been pooled beau. IhcIc l ubl'"o uJ» did nOI d iffer
Ji&nificaDUy. fn:qucnciCI that 5i&nificanlly ucccdcd mo Irc: marked by a n &lterisk i the error
ban cndOlC :t I S. E.
INTEALINGUAL IDENTIFICATION
719
Experiment I. Thus, the Experiment 2 data for N suggest indirectly that
Spanish speakers of EngJish may be beller able to appraise the phonetic
characteristics of English vowels than subjects without such familiarity.
Three responses were obtained at above-chancc ratcs for English lsI: < e>
(44 %), < 8 > (39~.). and "none" (13 ~.) . One might expect English /e/ lo be
identified with Spanish leI because this phoneme has an le] allophone.
"None" responses might be expected because the lsI realizations in "bet"
occurred in an unaccustomed phonetic contat (i .e.• preceding a word-final
stop). The only explanation that comes to mind for why English lEI was
sometimes labelled <a> is the acoustic similarity of some of the English /EI
realizations to Spanish /a/ (sec Figure 2). Two responses at above-chancc
rates were obtained for English Iz /: < a > (S2~.) and "none" (12~.). This
finding does not support a conclusion that might be drawn from Scholcs'
( 1967) perceptual study, viz. thaI Spanish speakers judge EngliSh 12/ to be a
new vowel.
"None" responses were obtained morcofien from bilinSuaJs in the present
aperiment than from the monolingual subjects in Experiment I. The
frequencies of none responses obtained in ExperimenLS I and 2 were: IiI (0%
vs. 8%), /II (12% VS. 21~.). leI (I~. vs. 13%). Ie/ (10% VS . 12%). The
differences between experiments were all significant at the 0.05 level
(U - 107.0. 119.0, 65.0, 118.0). The same procedures were used for the
bilinguals and monolinguals, 50 these l'Ciults suggest that the Spanish
speakers of English had begun to note some of the acoustic differences
between English and Spanish vowels. However, allhough the Spanishl
English bilinguals used the "none" label more often than did the Spanish
monolinguals. few bilinguals used it as their predominant response for the
English vowels_The rale of " nonc" never exceeded an average 20~. for any
vowel in Experiment 2; and only 12 of the 20 individual subjects used " none"
in more than 10% of instances in responding to the four vowels. If we
consider all 40 subjects who parlicipated in Experiments I and 2, the rate of
"nonc" responses exceeded 50% in only 10 of the 160 possible instances (40
subjects x 4 vowels). Six subjects used "none" as (heir predominant label for
/II. and four used it predominantly for 1r.1(sec Figure 7 below).
Of the four American English vowels examined. N and IE/ are probably
the least like a Spanish vowel phoneme in acoustic phonetic terms. We
reexamined the data obtained for those subjects from Experiments I and 2
who were not reluctant to use the "none" response. The "non-reluctant"
subjects were defined as aU those who responded "none" in more than 10%
of instances overall. The frequencies with which the "none" response was
used in labelling N and IIItI by these 18 subjecLS were compared (0 the
frequencies for IiI and lEI. The combined frequency of "none" response for
the non-reluctant subjects was significantly grealer for /1/-/1£1 than li/-/el
(28Y, vs. 13 ~.) [H= 12. 1, df-3, p - 0.OO7}. Still, had the Spanish subjccts
established phonetic categories for English /1/ and leel. we would have
720
flEGE
expected "none" responses to be used morc consistcntJy. Thus the results
obtained in the first two experiments do not strongly support the hypothesis
that any or the English vowels eumincd here will be treated as " new" by
adult Spanish learners or English.
EXPERIMENT 3
The inter·subject variation in the use or " none" suggests that it may be
difficult to detennine, in an absolute sense, whether bilinguaJs judge an
English vowel to be phonetically or phonemically distinct rrom vowels in the
LI inventory. The orthographic classification or L2 vowels in Experiments I
and 2 resembles an experiment described recently by Johnson (1990), where
subjects were asked to detennine whether words synthesized with different
FO values had been spoken by the same talker or by different talkers. One
listener identified only those word!: produced with an ithnlica/ FO values as
having been produced by the same talker. Other listeners had a more IiberaJ
standard, Some, in fact, seemed willing to allribute any detectable FO
difference to a difference in speaker identity.
It is possible that some subjects in the Experiments I and 2 were more
willing to we the "none" label than other subjects as the result of a general
response bias. Ir so, it should be possible to manipulate the frequency of
"none" responses. We attempted 10 do so in Experiment 3 by using
instructions that were quite different rrom those used in the two earlier
experiments. The new instructions encouraged subjects to usc the "none"
label. Under the new instructions, " none" might be used often enough to
warrant concluding that an English vowel emerges as " new" ror Spanish
speakers of English.
Method
The stimuli used in Experiments I and 2 were again used here. The on ly
imponant change in proceduTCS was in the instructions read in Spanish to the
subjects. The subjects in Experiments I and 2 were told that the purpose or
those experiments was to "compare" Spanish and English vowels. Here, they
were told that the purpose of the experiment was to identiry differences
between Spanish and English vowels. The ExperimeOl I and 2 subjects were
told to circle one or five vowellet!ers, but to use "none" ir they did not hear a
vowel from Spanish. Included in the instructions ror Experiment 3 was the
observation that "many English vowels are unlike any vowel in Spanish".
The subjecl5 were told to use "none" if they heard one or these "different"
English vowels, but to use one of the five letters if they thought they had
heard 8 Spanish vowel.
Twenty additional native Spanish speakers of English were drawn from
the same population as in Experiment 2. The average age of the subjects flO
tNTERLINGUAL tDENTtFtCATtON
721
male, 10 females) was 28 years (S.D. =6). These subjects had arrived in the
United States at an average age of 25 years (S.D." 7), had studied English
for an average of 5 years (S.D. - 5), and estimated that they used English
about 56'1. of the time on a daily basis (S.D.-J l). A subgroup of ten
inexperienced subjects had lived in the United Stales for only 0.4 years on the
average at the time of the study; 10 relatively experienced subjects had lived
in the Uniled States for an average of 6.4 years.
Results and Discussion
A series of Mann-Whitney tests was carried out to test for between-group
differences. Tests were not carried OUI when a label was used in less than 5%
of instances. The alpha level was set at 0.0045 for the II tests that were
perfonned to ensure an experiment-wise error rate of 0.05. No betweengroup difference reached significance. The largest difference observed was for
the " none" response as applied to /II. The experienced subjects used "none"
more ofien than did the inexperienced subject! (51';' vs. 25'11) (U-2J.0.
p-O.04J). A non-significant trend in the opposite direction was observed for
"none" responses to /z/ (13 1; . vs. 23%) [U= 49 .0, p = 0.971].
The data for the experienced and inexperienced subjects have been
combined in Figure 5 because the differences between the two subgroups.
were non-significant. The "none" response was used more often here than in
•=0• =0
0;
"'"
u
CSJ none
100
80
60
.0
20
o
I'
~
1,1
/II
1·1
Icel
FIG. S. TIM: mun pen:cnl.ge or inll.1IOe5 10 which tIM: Spanilh speakers o( Enatisb in
Experiment l, whcreilUlnKtiolUcncourflJCd "none" ""pcm_. uoed < i >, <C>, < ' >. <0>,
< u >, Ind ""onc" 10 labclthc yowcls in "beat", "bit", "bet", Ind "bill". D~II (o r experienced
a"d inellperienced 5peakers or Enalilh have been pooled bccaUIC IhcIC lublVoup6 did nol differ
li.nitieantly. An asterisk indicates lIbove<hllocc rrcqutnciGlj the error ban enclo" % I S.E.
722
FLEGE
Experiment 2 (23% vs. 14%), butlhe difference was smaller than expected,
given the major changc in instructions (sec above). Mann- Whitncy tests wcre
used to test for differences in the frequency of "nonc" responses in Experiments 2 and 3. The difference between Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 was
non-significant for IiI (8% vs. 9~.) and for Iz l (12% vs. 18%) lV- 190.0,
180.0] . The difference for /II (21~, vs. 38%) was marginally significant,
V-133 .S, p-O.072; the difference for leI (13% VI . 27%) reached significance
at the O.OS level, V-IlLS. p -0.0 16. Recall that the Spanish speakers of
English in Experiment 2 used "none" more onen than did the Spanish
monolinguals in Experiment I (14'1, vs. 6'/0 overall). It thus appean that
manipulating instructions had about as much inHuencc: on subjects' likelihood to use "none" for an English vo .....el as did learning to speak EngJish.
Thc subjects in Experiment 3 used <1> to labellhe English lit realizations in most instances (88~.). For /II. three responses were used at abovechance rates: <I> (39'1.), Done (380/_), and < e > (23%). Taken togelher
with tbe resUh5 of Experiment 2, this suggeslS that Scholes' (1967) 400-msec
synthetic stimuli probably did not pennit an accurate assessment of how
Spanish speaken identify English /II. Apparently, the acoustic overlap
between English /II and Spanish leI realizations is sufficient to cause at least
some Spanish/ English bilinguals to identify the two vowels with one another
perceptually.
Three responses were obtained at above-chance rates for English /e/:
< e > (48%), none (27%), and < a > (22~.). Taken together with the results
of Experiment 2, this suggests that both phonetic and phonemic-level
processing influenced the subjects' labelling. Had labelling been based
entirely on phonemic-level decisions. one would have expected Ihe subjects 10
use the < e > response consistently. Apparently. they were influenced by the
acoustic-phonetic similarity of certain English Ie) realizations to Spanish lal
(see Figure 2). and perhaps also by the fact that the English (e] realizations
occurred in an unfamiliar phonetic context. Two response!l were obtained at
above-chancc: rates for Iz /: <a> (82'1.) and "none" (18~,). Taken together
with the results of Experiment 2, this strongly suggests that, contrary to an
inference drawn from Scholes' (1967) perceptual study. Spanish speakers of
English do not regard llel as a new vowel.
EFFECTS OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE
We saw little difference in the frequency of "none" responses between
relatively experienced and inexperienced Spanish speakers of English in '
Experiments 2 and 3. The possibility existed that significant effects or L2
experience might be evident if the data from these two experiments were
combined. That was the purpose of this section. Characteristics of the 20
experienced and 20 inexperienced subjects from Experiments 2 and 3 are
INTEALlNGUAllOENTIFICATION
723
TAeu 5
Chlracteristlcs 01 the NIIMI Splnllh Subfectl in
Experiments 1-3
N,
Ap
10.010.'
LOR'
YRS'
PER'
Monolill,1Ill1
Spanb'
1/l1X~'lIncrd
£Jc~'lem:,d
ill EII6/lsII
ill &,IWI
20(11 M/9 F)
20 (10 MI lO F)
20 <10 MI lO F)
26.1 (U)
11.9 ( 6.1)
11. 1 ( 6.1)
0.6 ( Q.<t)
5.6 ( • . 1)
59% (18)
11.1 ( 6.S)
59)
6.6 < 2.5)
U ( 4.6)
62% (24)
21.., (
'AJC or srrival in the Uniud Stales, ill yell ....
• i.en,lh or raidc:ncc in the United SIIIU, '" )'CIn.
'Yean of duJroom inslnIClion in EnJlll.h. in yun .
• Sclr.atinated percentaae dilly ute or EnJlilh.
Not, : "M'· indka lCS male. "F" indkatcs rwuole.
summarized in Table 5. The experienced subjects had arrived in the United
Slates at an earlier average age than the inexperienced subjccts (22.5 vs. 28.1
years) and had lived there longer (6.6 vs. 0.6 years). The IwO groups were
matched fairly closely, however, in terms of chronological age, amount of
formal cducalion in English, and self-estimated daily usage of English.
One-half of Ihe experienced Spanish speakers of English received the
"neutral" Experiment 2 instructions, whereas the other half received the
instructions from Experiment 3, which encouraged the use of "none". The
same proportion orinexperienced and experienced Spanish subjects received
the two types of instruction, so it is possible to draw valid comparisons
between the [wo groups. It would not be valid, on the other hand, to compare
either group of bilinguals to the 20 Spanish monolinguals, whose characteristics are also summarized in Table 3. This is because all of the monolinguals
received the "neutral" instructions. The monolinguals' results arc nevertheless juxtaposed to those of the bilinguals in Figure 6 for the sake of
completeness.
Inspection of Figure 6 reveals that the subjects in all Ihree groups used
< i > predominantly to label English IiI, and < a > predominantly 10 label
Iz /. There was nol a systematic increase in "none" responses for Iz /,
suggesting that Iz l does not emerge as a new vowel. The greatest effects of L2
experience seemed to be for /1/ and lEI. Use of the <i> label for English /1/
decreased, and use of " none" responses for English /1/ increased, as function
of L2 experience. This suggesls that /1/ may be treated as a new vowel by at
least some experienced Spanish speakers of English.
Compared 10 the monolinguals, the Spanish speakers of English were
more likely to judg(i the Bngli!ih yowel {f.{ in "bet" as non-Spanish. For some
VOWEL ..
IV
VOWEl ..
'00r-------~=-~~--~--o_
o_
Spano"" ••Ioo·K'''''~,
Inup inE~
hI*". in Engll""
N .. 2OIqroup
SpanosI'! Wonol;"9.
lnexp on Enql''''
ISS!! E _ '" EniI~""
~
80
101
N "20/~
.
60
9
•
20
0'-----'-
<,'
11 I~ II
VOWEL ...
'00
o_
1.,.1
SpaNsI'! WOI'IOIjng
Inexp '" EnqIi.1'!
!5:S:9 E.ocper '" En9l1st.
N _ 2O/~roup
eo
..
60
9
•
20
o
<,'
~*
RESPONSE CATEGORY
<,>
.
Not a Span-
~RESPONS£ CATEGORY
flO. 6. Comparison or the resul ts o bWocd in Experiments 1-3.
INTERLINGUAL IDENTIFICATION
725
reason, the inexperienced subjocts who had just begun learning English
seemed to identify English /E/ wilh Spanish /a/ al a relatively high rate. The
experienced speakers of Spanish did so at a lower rate. thereby resembling
the Spanish monolingual!.
Mann-Whitney tests were carried out to test for differences between the
experienced and inexperienced Spanish subjects. The alpha level was sel al
0.0045 because a total of 11 lesls was perfonned . (Tests were nOI carried OUI
in the 13 inslanccs where a label was used in fewer than 5~. of instances.)
None of the between-group difference reached significance. It is worth
notina. however, thai the difference in the frequency with which the
experienced and inexperienced subjocts used "none" in labelling II/ (42~, vs.
IS'! .) came very close to reaching significance (U - 99.S, p - O.OO56}, as did
the between-group difference in <It> responses for leI (21~. v,. 40'''';
U- 105.0, p - O.OO95].
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Spanish monolinguals and Spanish speakers of English who differed in
English-language experience used one of the five vowel letters of "none" to
classify the American English vowels in "beat", "bit", "bet", "bat" (i.e., fil,
11/, /1'./, and /Ee/) Their response patterns were. for the most part, predictable
on the basis of the acoustic relationship between Spanish and English vowels
as described in the Introduction .
The study yielded several important findings . Changing instructions so as
to encourage the use of "none" resulted in a 9% increase in the frequency of
"none" responses. The size of the increase was of about the same magnitude
as the difference between Spanish monolinguals and Spanish speakers of
English who received the same instructions (6% \/s. 14~,). Apparently,
learning English heightens native Spanish speakers' awarcnes.s of acoU!lticphonetic differences between Spanish and English vowels. Directing subjects'
allention to cross-language vowel differences via experimental instructions
may result in a similar heightened awareness. This will need to be explored
further, however, as the observed effect may simply have been due to a
change in response bias (I.e. an overall greater propensity 10 respond
" none").
There was little evidence that Spanish learners of English will judge IE/ in
the context of word-final ", [0 be a "new" (non-Spanish) vowel. Even
experienced Spanish speakers of English seem to continue identifying English
/1£/ realizations in terms of their Spanish tal category. In this sense they differ
from native speakers of Gennan, another language that has no /1£1phoneme.
Gennans seem 10 identify English lEI with Gennan leI or /e:/ (Bohn &. Flege,
1990). Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and Korean also seem to
identify English /z / with an /1'./ (or It/-like) category in their LI (Flege, 1990).
726
FLEGE
Some Spanish subjects in lIle present study seemed 10 be aware of the
difference between English /1/ and vowels in the Spanish inventory. Inexperienced Spanish speak.ers of English applied Ihe "nonc" (i .c., non-Spanish)
label to English /1/ more onen than did Spanish monolinguals. Also
experienced Spanish speakers of English used "nonc" for /1/ more orten than
did inexperienced Spanish speakers of English. The difference between the
experienced and inexperienced subjects (42'Y_ vs. IS-t.) just missed reaching
significance, however (p - 0.(056).
The results obtained here for /II and Irtl provide insight into results
obtained in a forced-choice identification experiment by FJege and Boho
(1989). The mem~rs of synthetic continua ranging from "beat" to "bit"
(/ii-III ) and " bet" to " bat" (fl /-/rt/) were presented to native speakers of
English and to experienced and inexperienced Spanish speakers of English.
Only a few Spanish subjects resembled the native English subjects in showing
a clear crossover from {lI to /II responses as a function of spectral changes.
(Those who did not use spectral changes divided the continuum on tbe basis
of duration differences.) However, nearly all of the Spanish subjects resembled the native English subjects in showing a clear crossover from 1£1 to
llel responses as a function of spectral changes in the stimuli . The results
obtained here suggest that the Spanish subjects tested by Flege and Bohn
(1989) probably did not succeed on the I£/-/rtl continuum as a result of
having formed an Ir./ category. They may simply have appeared to resemble
native English subjects as a result of identifying the Ir./ endpoint of the
synthetic continuum in terms of their Spanish /a/ category. The few Spanish
subjects who resembled the native English subjects for the /i/-M continuum,
on the other hand, may have succeeded as the result of having formed an N
category (unless, of course, they identified the /11 endpoint with Spanish Ie!).
An examination of responses to English 1£1 suggC$ted that the orthographic responses may not have been based entirely on phonemic level
classifications. Had this been so, we would have expected the < e > label to
have been applied consistenUy to realizations of English Ie/. This is because
Spanish leI has an [£] allophone said to match the EngJish 1£1 in " bet"
(Dalbor, 1980). However, the subjects orten used < a > and "none" reo
sponses for English 1£1. Of the 20 bilingual subjects in Experiment 2 (where
use of the "none" response was not specifically encouraged), four used < e >
in more than 7S t!. of instances to identify English leI. three used <a > in
more than 75-/_ of instances. and the remaining 13 used both < e > and
< a >. The < a > responses might be attributed to the acoustic phonetic
similarity o f certain realizations of English lEI and Spanish /al (see Figures 1
and 2). The " none" responses 10 En&lish tel might be attributed to the fact
that the English /£/ realizations occurred in a phonetic context in which such
vowels are not found in Spanish (i .e. preceding a word ·final /tJ).
The study did not provide strong support ror the hypothesis that etrtain
INTER LINGUAL IDENTIFICATION
727
o
1.40nOlin~uoll (E11' 1)
• Bilinguo, ~EXP. ~
6. Bilinguoll Exp. J
100
••
•c
80
••"
60
c
0
c
40
8.
'.
."
8
0
• '"
• is''""
• '"
•
~I
0
20
0
"bit"
ft
~
'~"
!
0
0
• ,''""
•,
•I *
• '"
" bot"
FlO. 7. The percenlage or times tbe lubjecll in E.J:perillKnll 1- 1 \lied the "none" (i.e. nOI
SP'lni.h) to labellhe Englis.h vowelJ /II and lEI (in bU, bul). 1bc mean values ror mou .ubjecu i.
bued on 60 ruponlCS (10 native English !.Ilken)( 1 token, )( 2 randomiZition.) in mOil
jlUltallCU.
English vowels will be treated as "new" by adult native speakers of Spanish.
There was, however, a high degree or inter-subject variabi lity in the use orthe
"none" response, especially for III and lle/. Figure 7 shows the frequency
with which the "none" label was applied 10 these vowels by the 60 subjects
who participated in Experiments 1- 3, It appears Ihat English llel and
especially English /1/ fell outside the bounds of the Spanish vowel system for
at least some subjects. It has been hypothesized that the authentic production
of L2 sounds that are not identical to sounds in the 1I requircs the fonnation
of additional phonetic categories, and that L2 phonetic category fonnalion is
blocked when interlingual identification persists (Flege, 1988b; 1990; in press,
a, b). The possibility therefore exists that the subjects who frequently judged
English llel and /II to be non-Spanish were better at producing these vowels
than were the subjects who seldom used the "none" label. Production was
not tested in this study. however. It would be userul to examine production
and orthographic classification together in a ruture experiment.
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