A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English

This study examines the production and perception of the three Basque sibilant fricatives by L1 English learners in a semester-long university course. Basque has three sibilant fricatives: lamino-alveolar (/s̻/), apico-alveolar (/s̺/), and pre-palatal (/ʃ/) sounds. Acoustically, the first two sound...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ander Beristain
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UPV/EHU Press 2025-01-01
Series:Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo"
Online Access:https://ojs.ehu.eus/index.php/ASJU/article/view/25918
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832576268955025408
author Ander Beristain
author_facet Ander Beristain
author_sort Ander Beristain
collection DOAJ
description This study examines the production and perception of the three Basque sibilant fricatives by L1 English learners in a semester-long university course. Basque has three sibilant fricatives: lamino-alveolar (/s̻/), apico-alveolar (/s̺/), and pre-palatal (/ʃ/) sounds. Acoustically, the first two sounds share similarities with English /s/ and /ʃ/, respectively. L2 phonology theories posit that learners will map the production and perception of L2 sounds to (similar) sounds in their native language. Afterwards, they will create new categories based on the phonetic proximity of the new sounds and those in their native language. Ten students enrolled in a Beginners’ Basque course and two native speakers of Basque serving as control group undertook a read-aloud task (Experiment 1) followed by an ABX discrimination task (Experiment 2) during Week 5 of classes. Center of Gravity and accuracy scores were extracted. Results show that learners tended to merge the two apical sibilants into an English /s/-like sound. Accuracy scores between the two alveolar sibilants in Basque were significantly lower than the other sound contrasts.
format Article
id doaj-art-2ea1468d714841eab5cada46aad96f95
institution Kabale University
issn 0582-6152
2444-2992
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher UPV/EHU Press
record_format Article
series Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo"
spelling doaj-art-2ea1468d714841eab5cada46aad96f952025-01-31T08:28:45ZengUPV/EHU PressAnuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo"0582-61522444-29922025-01-0157(1-2)10.1387/asju.25918A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of EnglishAnder Beristain0Saint Louis University This study examines the production and perception of the three Basque sibilant fricatives by L1 English learners in a semester-long university course. Basque has three sibilant fricatives: lamino-alveolar (/s̻/), apico-alveolar (/s̺/), and pre-palatal (/ʃ/) sounds. Acoustically, the first two sounds share similarities with English /s/ and /ʃ/, respectively. L2 phonology theories posit that learners will map the production and perception of L2 sounds to (similar) sounds in their native language. Afterwards, they will create new categories based on the phonetic proximity of the new sounds and those in their native language. Ten students enrolled in a Beginners’ Basque course and two native speakers of Basque serving as control group undertook a read-aloud task (Experiment 1) followed by an ABX discrimination task (Experiment 2) during Week 5 of classes. Center of Gravity and accuracy scores were extracted. Results show that learners tended to merge the two apical sibilants into an English /s/-like sound. Accuracy scores between the two alveolar sibilants in Basque were significantly lower than the other sound contrasts. https://ojs.ehu.eus/index.php/ASJU/article/view/25918
spellingShingle Ander Beristain
A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English
Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo"
title A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English
title_full A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English
title_fullStr A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English
title_full_unstemmed A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English
title_short A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English
title_sort classroom study on the perception and production of basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of english
url https://ojs.ehu.eus/index.php/ASJU/article/view/25918
work_keys_str_mv AT anderberistain aclassroomstudyontheperceptionandproductionofbasquesibilantfricativesbynativespeakersofenglish
AT anderberistain classroomstudyontheperceptionandproductionofbasquesibilantfricativesbynativespeakersofenglish