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Research attempting to understand the intermediate stages of first-language acquisition and disordered speech has led to the discovery of covert contrast. A covert contrast is a statistically reliable difference between phonemes that is produced by a language learner, but in a way that cannot be heard readily by a listener of the target language. In the present study, we aimed to extend the investigation of covert contrasts to the domain of second-language acquisition. In particular, we used ultrasound tongue imaging to examine whether adult second-language learners of American English produced articulatory distinctions between the target vowels, in addition to producing acoustic differences. We collected speech recordings from 21 speakers (7 Korean speakers, 7 Spanish speakers, 7 English controls) while they produced words illustrating the relevant vowel contrasts in English: /i/-/?/ and /[epsilon]/-/ae/. Results showed that approximately 36% of our second-language participants implemented various patterns of covert contrast in vowel articulation. Ultrasound measurements revealed that two participants made a covert distinction between two vowels that were perceptually neutralized. For one participant, the anterior part of the tongue was higher for /i/ than /?/, and for the other, it was higher for /[epsilon]/ than /ae/. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of a learner-oriented approach in studying the acquisition of phonemic contrasts and suggest that ultrasound tongue imaging can be a promising tool to examine the articulatory details of vowel production in second-language learners.

The purpose of this article is to report results of an investigation into the production of a covert contrast by native speakers of Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish in the acquisition of the English distinction between the high front vowels /i/ and /?/. A covert contrast is a statistically reliable acoustic distinction made by a language learner between target-language phonemes that is nevertheless not perceived by native speakers of the target language. We gathered data on both the production and perception of this vowel contrast from a total of 36 second-language learners from the three native-language backgrounds, along with data from an additional 22 native-speaker controls. The findings are that about two-thirds of our second-language learners produced a covert contrast between the targeted vowel phonemes. In light of the results from research on child language acquisition and disordered speech, our data suggest that a covert contrast is not limited to the domain of the acquisition of a first language, either by normally developing children or by those with speech disorders.

This article reports empirical findings from an ongoing investigation into the acquisition of second-language (L2) phonemic contrasts. Specifically, we consider the status and role of the phenomenon of hypercorrection in the various stages through which L2 learners develop and internalize a target language (TL) contrast. We adopt the prevailing view in both sociolinguistics and second language acquisition studies that hypercorrection results from a certain amount of linguistic insecurity on the part of the speaker. Based on 53 Korean speakers' production of English target phonemes, we conclude that a series of hypercorrection errors may well represent the final stage in the acquisition of a contrast, and further, that in order for hypercorrection to occur, there must be a formal connection between the TL contrast being acquired and the phonological structure of the learner's native language. (Contains 3 tables, 6 figures and 4 notes.)

We present findings of an investigation into the acquisition of the English /s/-/esh/ contrast by native speakers of Korean and Japanese. Both of these languages have the phones [s] and [esh], and both languages exhibit a pattern--or motivate a rule--whereby /s/ is realized as [esh] before the vowel [i] and the glide [j]--that is, high front vocoids. The crucial difference, and the focus of this study, is that in Korean [s] and [esh] are allophones of /s/, whereas in Japanese the two sounds arguably instantiate different phonemes. We present production data showing that the differences in the functioning of [s] and [esh] in the second language learner's native language have different consequences for the acquisition patterns and the error types produced in the learning of this contrast.

Contributes to the understanding of several well-known problems relating to the learning of phonemic contrasts in second language phonology. Describes a series of ongoing studies examining what Lado (1957) hypothesized to represent maximum difficulty in second language pronunciation, namely a phonemic split. (Author/VWL)

Testing of the validity of two implicational universals regarding consonant clusters, involving the analysis of the interlanguage of native-speaking Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students of English-as-a-Second-Language, was strongly supportive of the two universals, suggesting the possibility that primary language universals hold also for nonprimary languages. (26 references) (Author/CB)

A study of English as a second language students' generalization of second-language learning showed that maximal generalization of learning took place from structures that were typologically more marked to those structures that were typologically less marked, and not the reverse. (Author/CB)

The validity of 2 implicational universals regarding constituent order in questions is tested in the English speech of 14 native speakers of Japanese, Turkish, and Korean. The interlanguage evidence is found to be generally supportive of the 2 universals. (31 references). (Author/VWL)

Discusses the amount of influence that a learner's native language has on the acquisition of a second language. Suggests that some important properties of a learner's interlanguage (IL) can be predicted, as shown by the different IL rules that Cantonese and Japanese use in dealing with English word-final voice contrasts. (Author/MES)