Our first Linguistics Research seminar this semester will focus on links between how we write (orthography) and how we perceive and produce speech (phonology).
It will be a fascinating talk so do come along if you are in or near Newcastle and you can make it.
The speaker is Dr. Rebecca Ishaku Musa from Newcastle University.
The talk will take place at 2-3pm in the Lipman Building Room 121
There is a campus map and directions to the campus here:
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/contact-us/
Here is further information:
The effect of L2 English orthographic representations on L1 Tera speakers’ production and perception
Dr Rebecca Ishaku Musa
Abstract
Studies in L2 acquisition of phonology and orthographic input have provided evidence about L2 learners’ phonological development due to orthographic input (e.g. Young-Scholten 2002 and Young-Scholten and Langer 2015). Also, the effects of grapheme-phoneme correspondences leading to non-target like productions (e.g. Rafat 2011 & 2016); and the effects of orthographic representation on pronunciation (e.g. Bassetti 2008 and Bassetti and Atkinson 2015). Studies have also looked at the effect of orthographic exposure leading to epenthesis to resolve complex clusters (e.g. Young-Scholten, Akita and Cross 1999). In this regard, a study was conducted involving L1 Tera (bilingual speakers of Tera/Hausa in Nigeria) learners of L2 English in an experimental study which looked at whether providing L2 English orthographic input would affect the learners underlying representations and in turn their productions.
Data was collected among 73 Tera speaking secondary school students in pre-test and post-test in picture-naming, dictation, ABX epenthesis and reading tasks. Qualitative analysis was conducted using linear phonological operations and rules based on six error categories as follows: vowel epenthesis, consonant cluster reduction, phone substitution, metathesis, loan-word transfer, and orthographic-based errors.
The results revealed transfer from the learners L1 structures which were less complex than the L2 structures resulting in epenthesis of vowels [u] [o] [ɪ] to resolve complex consonat clusters not permitted in their L1, e.g. ’bench’ /benʧ/ → [benʧɪ]; or deletion of segments e.g. ‘lamps’ /lamps/ → [lams]. Also, there was increased effects of orthographic forms due to the complexity of the L2 English grapheme-phoneme correspondences resulting in what Bassetti and Atkinson (2015) refer to as ‘orthography-induced-epenthesis’ e.g. ‘knife’ /naɪf/ → [kinaɪf]. Also metathesis occurred, which is the reordering of words in order to resolve clusters that constitute L1 specific constraints, e.g. ‘desk’ /desk/ → [deks].
Northumbria Englishes 