Links between research on L2 phonological variation and the pedagogy of L2 phonology: A study of phonological variation in the English interlanguage of Cantonese speakers

This study focused on the phonological variation of initials /n-/ and /l-/ in the English interlanguage of Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong. This study adopted Labov’s (1972) and Tarone’s (1983, 1988) research methodology. It included elementary, intermediate and post-intermediate English learners from primary school, secondary school and university respectively. Six English tasks were designed for collecting data: free conversation, informal interview, passage reading, word reading, minimal pair reading and minimal pair repetition. The results of the study show that (1) L1 negative transfer plays a role in L2 phonological variation; (2) L2 phonological fossilization occurs; (3) The frequency of phonological substitution varies with speech styles; (4) A low level of phonological awareness leads to phonological substitution. There are links between the research findings and the pedagogy of L2 phonology. The pedagogy of L2 phonology should aim at enhancing learners’ phonological awareness in L2, enriching them with knowledge of L2 phonology and phonetics, training them to analyse the existing variation patterns in their L2 production, and using different speech styles for promoting pronunciation accuracy.