Speech Rhythms in Second Language Acquisition

How do second language learners whose mother tongue (L1) is rhythmically distinct with reference to the target language (L2) move from one system to the other? A descriptive model elaborated to account for the rhythmic organization of French and English ( Wenk and Wioland, 1982 ) is applied to the speech of French learners of English to identify the particular type of cross-linguistic influence operating therein. The following hypothesis is tested: In moving from the “trailer-timed” rhythmic groups of French to the “leader-timed” rhythmic groups of English, learners pass through a transitional stage characterized by the production of rhythmic groups which, while displaying features of both the L1 and L2 systems, are unique to the learner’s “interlanguage.” Evidence is presented for the existence of transitional rhythmic groups involving idiosyncratic distribution of articulatory energy as perceived in vowel reduction patterns of the interlanguage. The phenomenon varies according to speech task (increasing progressively from word-repetition to freer speech to imitative readings of complete sentences) and characteristically surfaces in intermediate-level speakers who wrongly identify words containing pre-tonic reduced syllables (e.g., “J a pan”) with rhythmic groups (or feet).