Effects of contextual factors in phonological variation in the English interlanguage of Cantonese speakers

This study investigated L2 interlanguage phonology, focusing on the production of syllable-initials /n-/ and /l-/ by Cantonese speakers learning English. Previous studies found that Hong Kong Cantonese speakers do not distinguish between /n-/ and /l-/, and that initial /n-/ is almost completely replaced by /l-/ in their spontaneous speech (Ho, 2004). L2 studies on Hong Kong students learning English indicate that phonological variation of /n-/ and /l-/ appears in the English interlanguage of Cantonese speakers due to L1 phonological transfer (Au 2002, Hung 2002). On the basis of previous studies, this study closely examined the effects of the variations of linguistic and psycholinguistic contexts on the merging of /n-/ with /l-/ in the English interlanguage of Cantonese speakers. This study adopted Tarone’s (1983, 1988) theoretical and methodological research framework. Six tasks with different psycholinguistic contexts were designed for collecting data, including conversation, interview, passage reading, word reading, minimal pair reading and minimal pair repetition. These six tasks varied in terms of formality, the amount of learner attention paid to pronunciation, and the degree of learners’ phonological awareness of the distinction between /n-/ and /l-/. The variations of linguistic context in terms of the variation of phonological environments of /n-/ were included in the tasks. The variation of phonological environments consisted of /n-/ followed or preceded by nasal or non-nasal coda, /n-/ followed by different vowels, /n-/ in a consonant cluster, an onset /n-/ in a syllable at different positions of polysyllabic words, and /n-/ words requiring re-syllabification. The participants in the study were elementary, intermediate and post-intermediate English learners from primary school, secondary school and university in Hong Kong respectively. The study found that systematic variation patterns of the merging of /n-/ with /l-/ appeared in different psycholinguistic contexts, but was not clearly shown in different phonological environments. The degrees of L1 phonological transfer varied in different psycholinguistic contexts which require different amount of attention to pronunciation, and raise different degrees of phonological awareness. The results of Varbrul analysis show that the variation of psycholinguistic contexts plays a more significant role than the variation of phonological contexts and L2 proficiency in the merging of /n-/ with /l-/ in English interlanguage of Cantonese speakers. This study supports the psycholinguistic model of L2 interlanguage variability, but provides unclear evidence for the linguistic model. Future studies adopting multi-approaches to the investigation of L2 interlanguage variability will enhance our understanding of the nature of variation in L2 production. ReferenceAu, Y.A. (2002). Markedness Theory and Syllable Structure Difficulties Experienced by Cantonese Learners of English. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Reading, Reading.Ho, M. T. (2004) A Sociolinguistic Investiagtion of Cantonese in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Essex, Essex.Hung, T. (2002). Language in Contact: Hong Kong English Phonology and the Influence of Cantonese. In Kirkpatrick, A. (ed.). Englishes in Asia: Communication, Identity, Power and Education (pp. 191-200). Melbourne: Language Australia.Tarone, E. (1983). On the Variability of Interlanguage Systems. Applied Linguistics,4, 143-163.________ (1988). Variation in Interlanguage. London: Edward Arnold.