The research we report here is intended to build an understanding of several
well-known yet poorly comprehended problems relating to phonemic contrasts in the
learning of L2 pronunciation. The competing influences of similarity and difference
between native and target language sound systems, in particular, are central to this
understanding, which we believe show that L2 phonology is a highly abstract
enterprise parallel to the phonologies of primary languages, rather than - as has
been assumed - a mere imitation of the target language’s pronunciations.
We identify three interesting learning situations which involve the target
language’s having different phonemic contrasts from the native language.
In the first situation, the native language has neither of two sounds which contrast
in the target language; in the second situation, the native language includes just
one of two sounds which contrast in the target language. And in the third situation,
the native language has both of the sounds in question but shows no contrast between
them, i.e., a phoneme of the native language has two (or more) allophones that
categorize as separate phonemes in the target language.
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