2026-04-17T20:12:06Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:2072/4633332026-03-13T10:25:04Zcom_2072_98col_2072_378192

00925njm 22002777a 4500 dc Cebrian, Juli author Gorba, Celia author Gavaldà Ferre, Nuria author 2021 The degree of similarity between the sounds of a speaker's first and second language (L1 and L2) is believed to determine the likelihood of accurate perception and production of the L2 sounds. This paper explores the relationship between cross-linguistic similarity and the perception and production of a subset of English vowels, including the highly productive /iː/-/ɪ/ contrast (as in "beat" vs. "bit"), by a group of Spanish/Catalan native speakers learning English as an L2. The learners' ability to identify, discriminate and produce the English vowels accurately was contrasted with their cross-linguistic perceived similarity judgements. The results showed that L2 perception and production accuracy was not always predicted from patterns of cross-language similarity, particularly regarding the difficulty distinguishing /iː/ and /ɪ/. Possible explanations may involve the way the L2 /iː/ and /ɪ/ categories interact, the effect of non-native acoustic cue reliance, and the roles of orthography and language instruction. Vowel contrast L2 perception L2 production Cross-linguistic similarity Individual variation When the Easy Becomes Difficult : Factors Affecting the Acquisition of the English /iː/-/ɪ/ Contrast