Effect of lexical access and meaningful linguistic context on second language speech perception

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Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Humanities
Department Linguistics
Author Jarvi, Albert O
Title Effect of lexical access and meaningful linguistic context on second language speech perception
Date 2008-12
Description Novel second language (L2) phonemic contrasts are difficult for learners to perceive and produce. Yet research has shown that even difficult L2 phonemic contrasts can be learned under some circumstances. Most of this research has been done in laboratory settings, using tasks that do not closely resemble natural communication. Among other characteristics, natural communication differs from these laboratory tasks in that (1) lexical access is usually not required in the laboratory tasks, and (2) target words in laboratory tasks are usually not embedded in meaningful linguistic context. This thesis describes an experiment designed to test whether these two characteristics of natural communication make it more difficult for learners to perceive L2 phonemic contrasts. The results of this experiment show that both requiring lexical access and embedding target words in meaningful linguistic context reduce the L2 learners' ability to use phonemic contrasts to distinguish L2 minimal pairs, but that processing meaningful linguistic context affects L2 perception more than does lexical access.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Second language acquisition; Speech perception
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MA
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Effect of lexical access and meaningful linguistic context on second language speech perception" J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections, P27.5 2008 .J37
Rights Management © Albert O. Jarvi
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 5,082,814 bytes
Identifier us-etd2,90988
Source Original: University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections
ARK ark:/87278/s61z4k1g
Setname ir_etd
ID 193438
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s61z4k1g