Accentual and Final Lengthening of Dutch Learners of English

Abstract

Abstract In the present study lengthening in L1 Dutch and L2 English was explored. The first purpose was to examine how Dutch speakers of L2 English differing in levels of proficiency produce accentual and final lengthening in English. The second purpose was to investigate whether any influence of L2 English on L1 Dutch was evident in the production of lengthening. The participants were undergraduates at Utrecht University; half of them were majored in English and half of them had a major other than English. The production of accentual and final lengthening in sentence-initial and -final position was investigated, taking into account the syllable structure (CVC or CV) of the target words. Building on previous research, the first hypothesis was that proficient L2 English speakers were more native-like in the production of lengthening in English than those with an intermediate level of proficiency. The results confirmed this hypothesis as in sentence-final position the proficient speakers produced longer durations of both accented and unaccented CVC and CV words compared to the less proficient speakers. The second hypothesis predicted that the proficient group would increase the contrast between English and Dutch, whereas the intermediate group was expected to show convergence of Dutch and English values. The two proficiency groups were found to differ only in the production of the CV syllable structure in sentence-initial position where the less proficient speakers produced a longer duration than the proficient speakers, partially confirming H2. The findings of this study extend our knowledge of bidirectional influence at the suprasegmental level of prosody and provides new insights into lengthening in L2 Dutch and English, especially concerning level of proficiency in L2.