Linking Versus Glottalization: (Dis)connectedness of Czech

Accented English, Šárka Šimáčková, Václav Podlipský, Kateřina Kolářová
2014 Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics   unpublished
Our two studies examine the ability of advanced EFL learners to link words together in continuous speech. Specifically, they ask to what extent Czech learners of English can use resyllabification or linking sounds (linking r, transient glides j/w) to connect vowel-initial words to the preceding context and to what extent they mark such words with glottalization as in their L1. Study 1 examined whether the tendency to resyllabify in the learners' native dialect, Moravian Czech, was reflected in
more » ... ifferential rates of the different linking types. Resyllabification was indeed the most common linking type but only for obstruents. Study 2 extended our earlier observation that reading in synchrony with a model speaker led to greater connectedness in non-native speech and it tested synchronous reading as a training method. Most our learners increased linking while reading along with a recording but failed to transfer this ability into post-test production. Glottalization of word-initial vowels is a persistent feature in Czech-accented English. Even so, devoting time to reducing or eliminating it
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