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Date
8-12-2020 1:45 PM
Abstract
Within PSU Spanish courses students are expected to correct and enhance their pronunciation. In order to do so, students are taught to apply phonological based rules from standardized Spanish, regardless of students’ linguistic background. The purpose of this study is to explore one of the phonological rules taught, spirantization, and its occurrence within U.S. early sequential Spanish-English (ESSE) bilingual and late sequential (LSSE) bilingual speech. ESSE bilinguals are participants who were raised as Spanish and English native speakers in the U.S.; whereas LSSE bilinguals are participants who were raised in a Spanish speaking country but learned English in the U.S. in their adulthood. The specific question of this study is whether or not ESSE bilinguals produce spirantization in a different manner compared to LSSE bilinguals? Both groups of participants read sentences out loud that were audio recorded and analyzed through spectrograms for the production patterns of spirantization. The hypothesis is that there will be a difference between the groups in spirantization patterns, with LSSE bilinguals producing more spirantization than ESSE bilinguals. If a difference in spirant use is found between dialects, recommendations for future instruction should be to demonstrate how bilingualism can influence pronunciations within Spanish dialects.
Biographies
Lidia Echeverria-Garcia
Major: Speech and Hearing Sciences
Lidia Echeverria-Garcia is a senior at Portland State University. She is majoring in Speech and Hearing Sciences, obtaining a certificate in Chicano/Latino Studies, and minoring in Spanish and Psychology. Before the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, Lidia was part of the Bilingual Research Lab in the Speech and Hearing Sciences department. She coded bilingual children’s language samples and identified word shapes and phonological processes. This sparked an interest in phonological processes in bilingual adults, which inspired her research in the McNair program. After graduating with her undergraduate degree, she will be attending the University of Oregon’s Speech Language Pathology graduate program and be part of UO’s Project INICIO; all to become a Bilingual Speech Language Pathologist. Lidia hopes to begin working in schools with young elementary children before continuing research with bilingual adults and ultimately obtaining a PhD. Another aspiration of Lidia’s is to be part of administration within a school district to best support the needs of SLPs and of the children receiving SLP services within the schools. Lidia also hopes that at some point in her future to become a professor at a university, since teaching is another passion of hers.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Christina Gildersleeve-Neumann
Christina Gildersleeve-Neumann is Professor and Department Chair in Speech and Hearing Sciences at Portland State University in Oregon. She teaches bilingualism, phonetics, speech development and disorders. Her research is on speech development and disorder and treatment efficacy for speech sound disorders, with emphases on bilingual Spanish-English populations and childhood apraxia of speech.
Disciplines
Communication Sciences and Disorders | Latin American Languages and Societies | Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature | Spanish Linguistics | Speech and Hearing Science
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/33592
Spirantization amongst Early and Late Sequential Spanish-English Bilinguals
Within PSU Spanish courses students are expected to correct and enhance their pronunciation. In order to do so, students are taught to apply phonological based rules from standardized Spanish, regardless of students’ linguistic background. The purpose of this study is to explore one of the phonological rules taught, spirantization, and its occurrence within U.S. early sequential Spanish-English (ESSE) bilingual and late sequential (LSSE) bilingual speech. ESSE bilinguals are participants who were raised as Spanish and English native speakers in the U.S.; whereas LSSE bilinguals are participants who were raised in a Spanish speaking country but learned English in the U.S. in their adulthood. The specific question of this study is whether or not ESSE bilinguals produce spirantization in a different manner compared to LSSE bilinguals? Both groups of participants read sentences out loud that were audio recorded and analyzed through spectrograms for the production patterns of spirantization. The hypothesis is that there will be a difference between the groups in spirantization patterns, with LSSE bilinguals producing more spirantization than ESSE bilinguals. If a difference in spirant use is found between dialects, recommendations for future instruction should be to demonstrate how bilingualism can influence pronunciations within Spanish dialects.