Language Study Participants

Study Participants

• Participants filled out a preliminary questionnaire, which showed that the overall English level of Italian participants was homogeneously high, while the Arabic group had a range of English levels, from basic to proficient.
• The participants' language backgrounds and English proficiency levels are as follows:
  • Italian: En C1, En C1, En B2, En C1, Fr B2
  • Arabic: En C1, Fr B2, En A2, De B2, En B1, En B1, De B2
  • English: Sp B2, Ch B2, De/Sp B1, Ar C1, Fr B1

Word Repetition Task

• The task involved repeating 32 target words, embedded in the same carrier sentence ("Now I say [target word] to you").
• The target words were selected based on specific criteria:
  • The consonants analyzed in this study are the 6 English stops, lateral approximant, and alveolar nasal (/t/, /d/, /p/, /b/, /k/, /g/, /l/, /n/).
  • For each consonant, 4 words were selected, all with the same syllabic structure (CVCV).
  • Among these 4 words, 2 had written geminate consonants and had two different endings (one in <-er> and one in <-y>), while the other two had singleton written consonants and had the same different endings.

Overall Findings

• English written geminate consonants are pronounced with a longer duration by Italian and Arabic speakers.
• The findings of this study are compatible with other previous studies that explored gemination effects from different perspectives.
• Features like language background and phonetic factors have an impact on the duration of geminate consonants.

Results

• The rate-normalized consonant duration among the three groups of speakers showed that:
  • Italian and Arabic speakers pronounce English written geminate consonants with a longer duration.
  • The duration of consonants /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /l/, and /n/ varied among the three groups of speakers.

Word Frequency

• An analysis of word frequency was carried out using the Celex English Dictionary database.
• The study found that word frequency has an impact on the duration of geminate consonants.

Conclusion

• This study provided a cross-linguistic perspective on the effects of lexical gemination on L2 reading and speaking.
• Evidence was found that lexical gemination has a phonetic repercussion on the acquisition of languages that do not display lexical gemination.