Zeyu Li

Promovierende im Promotionskolleg Empirische und Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft von WiSe 2017/18 bis WiSe 2019/20

Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft am Lehrstuhl für Englische Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Münster: /Anglistik/Staff/Zeyu_Li.html

 

Dissertation

Acquisition of Rhoticity by Second Language (L2) Learners of English

The realization of postvocalic /r/ has been frequently examined in both diachronic and synchronic research on world Englishes. Since it arguably constitutes the most important phonotactic difference among accents of English and a multitude of linguistic and extra-linguistic constraints is known to modulate the degree of rhoticity, the /r/ variant forms an instructive phonological marker to investigate the dynamics of norm formation in emerging English varieties. While varieties in the Inner and Outer Circle have been extensively studied in this respect, there is fairly little research on the acquisition of rhoticity by L2 English learners in the Expanding Circle.

This project attempts to fill this gap with a series of perception and production tasks on rhoticity by L2 English learners from China. Based on data collected from 48 Chinese first-year undergraduates majoring in English at two data collection times with a time span of six months, it explores the relationship between perception and production of postvocalic /r/ by Chinese learners and how this changes over time. In particular, it aims at making theoretical contribution to L2 speech models such as Flege’s Speech Learning Model (SLM) or Best's Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM). Moreover, it will analyze the potential social and linguistic factors contributing to the variable realization and acquisition of rhoticity by using mixed effects regression model. Apart from auditory analysis, the acoustic properties of postvocalic /r/ by Chinese learners will also be investigated and compared with native English speakers in this study.