Pronunciation in Progress: A longitudinal study on the development of obligatory liaison in French as a foreign language
Elissa Pustka, Elisabeth Heiszenberger & Frederik Hartmann
(reviewers: Céline Dugua, Samantha Ruvoletto)
Abstract: The question of how the phenomenon of French liaison develops in the speech of L1 children and learners of French has sparked great interest over the last two decades. However, research on developmental aspects of liaison in French as a foreign language has usually been based on cross-sectional studies investigating intermediate or advanced learners at university. The aim of the present study is to enhance the body of existing data by focusing for the first time on beginner learners of French at high school (L1 German), within a three-year longitudinal study. Results showed that in spontaneous as well as read speech, correct liaison productions increased across sampling times, while non-realizations decreased. The rates of the rare non-resyllabification and mispronunciations of the liaison consonant remained stable. We found that liaison is item-determined rather than constrained by morphosyntactic contexts. One determinant factor may be the frequency of co-occurrence.
Pustka, Elissa; Heiszenberger, Elisabeth & Hartmann, Frederik. 2022. “Pronunciation in Progress: A longitudinal study of the development of obligatory liaison in French as a foreign language”. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 3, 45-88.