Acquisition of L2 Phonology

Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek both work at the University of Silesia, Poland. Their research interests include psycholinguistics, language acquisition and linguistic pragmatics. They are the editors of Neurolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives on SLA and The Acquisition of L2 Phonology, both recently published by Multilingual Matters. The editors and the contributing authors are active members of many scientific committees and organizations devoted to the investigation of language acquisition processes, and they regularly participate in many conferences and publish extensively. The author list comprises experienced scholars as well as young and promising researchers.Adam Wojtaszek is Associate Professor and the Deputy Director at the Institute of English, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. His major field of interest is linguistic pragmatics, psycholinguistics and language of persuasion. He has published two books on advertising language, Deciphering Radio Commercials – A Pragmatic Perspective (2002) and Theoretical Frameworks in the Study of Press Advertisements – Polish, British and Chinese Perspective (2011), as well as a number of articles on the topic. Within the area of psycholinguistics and second language acquisition studies, he has co-edited a number of volumes reporting on recent studies and developments, such as Neurolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives on SLA (2010), The Acquisition of L2 Phonology (2011a), Individual Learner Differences in SLA (2011b), Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning (2011c), and recently Studying Second Language Acquisition from a Qualitative Perspective (2014). He is also the author of a chapter on morphosyntactic development in the volume edited by Danuta Gabryś-Barker, Readings in Second Language Acquisition (2012). He is also one of the organizers of the annual international SLA conference held in Szczyrk, Poland, a major event of international recognition, initiated in the mid 1980’s by Janusz Arabski.

Second language phonetics and phonology continue to attract researchers and teachers, theoreticians and practitioners, with the former marvelling at the degree of variability in the L2 sound systems and the latter trying to find most effective ways of limiting this variability in their learners. As the field continues to grow, we need as much cooperation between the two approaches as possible. This volume offers a perfect balance between theory and practice, presenting original phonetics/phonology and classroom research. The applied approach that links all the contributions to the volume puts the sound system in the right perspective as an integral element of L2 proficiency. The book will be of interest to anyone involved in researching and/or teaching English to speakers of other languages.

• Janusz Arabski and Adam Wojtaszek: Introduction to the volumePart 1: Phonetic analysis1. Abeer Nasser Eddine: Second language acquisition: the articulation of vowels and the importance of tools in the learning process2. Luo Xiaorong and Gao Jian: On phonetic negative transfer from Chinese to English3. Linda Shockey: Understanding L2 and the perspicacious Pole4. Arkadiusz Rojczyk: Perception of the English Voice Onset Time continuum by Polish learners5. Marta Nowacka: The productive and receptive acquisition of consonants and connected speech by Polish students of EnglishPart II: Phonological analysis6. Monika Kusiak: The role of phonological awareness in beginning reading: a cross-linguistic perspective7. Anna Bloch-Rozmej: Aspects of phonological strength: evidence from language acquisition8. Liliana Piasecka: The role of phonemic awareness in the development of L1 and L2 readingPart III: Pedagogical perspectives9. Danuta Gabryś-Barker: Phonological issues in second language acquisition studies: focus areas and implications for FL instructional practices10. Wiesława Ferlacka and Włodzimierz Sobkowiak: PDI as a tool of phonetic enhancements to graded e-readers11. Tammy Gregersen: Suprasegmentals: tools for increased language teacher effectiveness12. Mirosław Pawlak: Students’ successes and failures in learning foreign language pronunciation: insights from diary data