Janae Lynn Madsen (Sharp) and Dr. Laura Smith, Germanic and Slavic Languages
For our project we asked how vowel mergers and vowel perception in native language would influence second language acquisition. We dealt specifically with native English speakers from parts of Utah and acquisition of German. Our prediction is that speakers of Utah English who don’t differentiate between certain vowel pairs will not be able to differentiate between those vowels in German.
Background research involved understanding both second language acquisition and the Utah vowel merger. We focused on vowel pairs such as card/cord and sale/sell. Bowie’s (2003) work was particularly helpful in understanding the mergers. This regional dialect has some characteristics which differentiate it from other regions, and present and interesting question for language acquisition in Utah. Perceptions of Utah vowel production are negative, and many speakers consider their own vowel sound to be inferior to other dialects. This negative perception influences vowel production in more typical words. For instance, if there are word pairs that are more commonly used then the merger disappears in these words. However, merging still happens in other, less common word pairs. Thus vowel recognition in some speakers is word specific, which we had to account for in our perceptual testing. This specific region is also interesting because non-Mormon Utahns are less likely to merge card/cord than Utahns who are Mormon.
This year we focused on developing testing materials and background research about vowel mergers and second language development. The groundwork was laid to prepare us to interpret our results quickly and know different factors which would be important in testing materials. We recorded native English speaking male and female examples who had all the Utah mergers we were testing for and who had none of the mergers. We also found native German speakers who recorded proper production of the vowels in German. After we had these recordings we separated the individual vowel sounds into files that could be used in testing. The biggest problem we came across were problems with the software needed to deliver the perceptual testing. This delay meant that we weren’t able to do the perceptual testing of the test subjects that we had contacted. In the coming year our data collection will finally begin, and I will be working closely with Dr. Smith to help interpret the data and submit our work for publication.
Working with Dr. Smith was really exciting because she knows so much about her field and has natural excitement for research. She helped me focus my research and we kept moving despite delays. I am looking forward to finishing our project together and using our research to help me in teaching German in Utah public schools.