Volume 1 - Issue 1 - December 2017
Latest issue of Journal of Applied Languages and Linguistics
Research Article
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TITLE: Sociocultural context, academic L2 Exposure
A short note on sociocultural context, academic L2 exposure and accent perception
Author: Rahul Chakraborty
Department of Communication Disorders
Mailing address: 601 University Drive
Texas State University
San Marcos, Texas 78666
Published online: 26 January 2018, pp. 27-39
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Citation: Chakraborty, R. (2017). Sociocultural context, academic L2 Exposure. A short note on sociocultural context, academic L2 exposure and accent perception in Journal of Applied languages and Linguistics, 1(1), pp.27-39.
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This research note explores influence of listeners’ age of initial academic L2 exposure on L1 accent perception in a postcolonial linguistic environment. In addition, influence of stimulus novelty on L1 accent perception was examined. Twenty-four bilingual listeners judged L1 accent of twenty bilingual speakers producing four real and four novel words. Both the listener and the speaker had the same L1, Bengali. Of the twenty-four bilingual listeners, twelve had early and twelve had late age of L2 exposure. Among the twenty bilingual speakers, ten had early and ten had late age of L2 exposure. L2 was English. All listeners perceived bilingual speakers with early academic L2 exposure as more native L1. Stimulus-novelty influenced listeners’ perception of L1 accent; novel words were rated less accented and more native-Bengali-like than the real words. Interplay of sociolinguistic variables is implied.
© Applied Language Studies House Publications 2017. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Linguistics; Bengali; Bilingualism; Accent; Perception
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