SSHRC
2006-2009

The variable phonology of interlanguage: A theoretical and sociolinguistic approach

Cardoso, W. (Concordia University)

One of the core problems in second language acquisition theory is how to describe and explain the highly variable (yet rule-governed) speech of second language learners: is such variation simply random and most likely due to the first language’s interference, or is it governed (at least in part) by general rules that reflect language universals? It is one of the goals of this research to address these questions, in the context of unique oral data collected from native speakers of Quebec French learning English as a second language in a classroom environment, involving several stages in the development of the target language. To achieve its goals, the study will examine both interference (i.e. influenced by the speakers’ first language) and developmental (i.e. influenced by language universals) phonological phenomena observed in the speech of these English learners.

For the analysis of variation in learner speech (interlanguage), this research project will adopt the constraint-based framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). One of the main advantages of this framework is that it allows the encoding of variation and its frequency effects (i.e. quantitative values) within a language by means of a single grammar. In order to provide a comprehensive investigation of the variable speech that characterizes the interlanguage of English learners, this study will promote a multidisciplinary and integrative approach that combines theoretical and methodological tools from three linguistic disciplines (i.e. sociolinguistics, second language acquisition and generative phonology), in an attempt to develop a “socially realistic linguistics” (Wilson and Henry 1998). The present research program will be the first to account for variable learner speech within this multidisciplinary, OT-based quantitative approach to variation.

In addition to the theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions outlined above, this research project will also promote the pedagogical application of its findings within the language classroom environment. This will lead to a more effective and socially realistic pedagogy for the teaching of English pronunciation within an approach that recognizes that “variability is the norm rather than the exception” (Dickerson 1975) in second language acquisition.