The Attainment of an English Accent : British and American Features in Advanced German Learners

Alexander Kautzsch

ISBN 10: 3631720998 / ISBN 13: 9783631720998

Published by Lang, Peter Gmbh, 2017

About this Item

nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - This book investigates inconsistencies in the accent adopted by advanced German learners of English with respect to differences between standard American and British English (rhoticity, t-voicing, the vowels in the lexical sets «bath», «lot» and «thought»). From a theoretical point of view, the volume contributes to understanding the status of L1 transfer in language learners at «ultimate attainment», a stabilized, late stage in language acquisition. Unlike in many studies in second language acquisition, the approach taken here is variationist, taking into account extra- and intra-linguistic factors as potential explanations for variability. The findings suggest that in addition to the target accent the strongest external factor is time spent abroad, while L1 accent and proficiency level seem to have minor impact only. Seller Inventory # 9783631720998

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Attainment of an English Accent : ...

Publisher: Lang, Peter Gmbh

Publication Date: 2017

Binding: Buch

Condition: Neu

About this title

Synopsis:

This book investigates inconsistencies in the accent adopted by advanced German learners of English with respect to differences between standard American and British English (rhoticity, t-voicing, the vowels in the lexical sets «bath», «lot» and «thought»). From a theoretical point of view, the volume contributes to understanding the status of L1 transfer in language learners at «ultimate attainment», a stabilized, late stage in language acquisition. Unlike in many studies in second language acquisition, the approach taken here is variationist, taking into account extra- and intra-linguistic factors as potential explanations for variability. The findings suggest that in addition to the target accent the strongest external factor is time spent abroad, while L1 accent and proficiency level seem to have minor impact only.

About the Author:

Alexander Kautzsch is a linguist in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Regensburg. His main research interests include phonological second language acquisition, English in Namibia, and the historical evolution of African American English.