Phonological Challenges at the Right Edge of Words: Second Language Learners are Strategic

Abstract

This paper argues that L2 learners are strategic: they use their L1 grammar to optimize target-like production of codas and consonant-shaped inflectional morphology, when errors would not be detected by native speaker interlocutors. Study I examines production of inflectional s versus coda s in two groups of Mandarin-speaking learners of English. The ‘variable deletion’ group is strategic: they use their L1 representation for inflection when possible, enabling them to produce inflectional s half of the time. Both groups of learners consistently produce coda s in monomorphemic words. However, this does not help with the production of inflection for the less strategic ‘across-the-board deletion’ group, as this group has no means to represent and thus produce inflection with the grammar they have built for English. Studies II and III compare production of coda s and coda l in a Mandarin speaker with near-native proficiency in English and in a Burmese speaker with high-intermediate proficiency in English. Both studies show that L2 learners can be strategic, independent of proficiency level: they adapt the L1 grammar for coda s when repairs involving substitution or deletion would be detected by English-speaking interlocutors; they attend less to optimizing production when errors would be less costly, leading to substitution and deletion in the case of coda l. Study IV examines the production of word-final codas in a Japanese speaker with near-native proficiency in English. Japanese only permits placeless nasals in final position, whereas English permits a wide range of consonants. It is shown that learners can repurpose their L1 representation of word-medial geminates for final codas, leading to productions that appear to be on target for English, but instead employ strategies drawn from the L1 grammar.