Duration as a secondary cue in Spanish rhotics
Sliding to understand perceptual categorization among heritage and L2 learners of Spanish
Abstract
This study investigates language learners’ attention to segmental duration when perceiving the Spanish tap-trill contrast. Previous research has demonstrated that native speakers (NSs), heritage language learners (HLLs), and second language (L2) learners maintain distinct segmental durations when maintaining the tap-trill contrast (e.g., Amengual, 2016; Henriksen, 2015; McCandless, 2020; Willis & Bradley, 2008). In this study, 31 HLLs and 104 L2 learners from a Midwest university listened to five minimal pairs in Spanish with modified closure durations (40 experimental stimuli) ranging from /ɾ/-like (tap-like) (22-40ms) to /r/-like (trill-like) (52ms-85ms). Visual analog sliders were used to connect learners' learner characteristics to continuous perceptions. Results of a regression analysis suggest that both L2 learners and HLLs attend to closure duration when perceiving contrast (β = .009, p < .001), though HLLs demonstrate less categorical overlap than L2 learners. In both groups, linguistic confidence is the strongest predictor of selection certainty for both taps (β = 0.824, p < .001) and trills (β = 1.125, p < .001). The results support a clearer understanding of heritage and developing L2 phonological mapping of the Spanish /ɾ/-/r/ contrast, as well as the utility and limitations of employing continuous measurements in perception research.
Keywords
continuous variables, t, taps, trills, Spanish-English bilinguals, perception, phonologyReferences
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