Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Dr. Ramsés Ortín

Second Advisor

Dr. John Foreman

Third Advisor

Dr. Minhee Eom

Abstract

The following study utilizes an experimental paradigm known as the Sequence Recall Task (Dupoux et al., 2001) to examine the processing of the English vowel contrasts /ɪ/-/i/ and /ɑ/-/æ/ among Spanish-English bilinguals. Using dominance scores calculated from the Bilingual Language Profile (Birdsong et al., 2011), this study examines the processing of these contrasts relative to a control contrast /u/-/ɛ/ as well as how the processing of these contrasts is modulated by participants’ English dominance. A total of 24 Spanish-English bilingual speakers participated in a Sequence Recall Task that targeted the processing of these three contrasts. The results indicate that participants were equally efficient in processing the control contrast of /u/-/ɛ/ and the experimental contrast /ɑ/-/æ/, but not the /ɪ/-/i/ contrast, which appeared to be more difficult than the other two. Furthermore, increased dominance in English was found to correspond with similarly increased accuracy in the processing of the /ɑ/-/æ/ contrast, while the /ɪ/-/i/ contrast remained difficult regardless of English dominance.

Comments

Copyright 2023 Elizabeth M. Garza. All Rights Reserved.

https://go.openathens.net/redirector/utrgv.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/processing-ɪ-i-ɑ-æ-contrasts-spanish-english/docview/2842748552/se-2?accountid=7119

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