Il cinese come L2

Sulla percezione di alcune vocali da parte di studenti italiani poliglotti

Abstract

The paper discusses whether L2 vowel-perception only depends on the L1 system and the exposure to the L2 system or it also correlates with the knowledge of L3 languages showing some phonetic-phonological characteristics that are similar to the L2 ones. Focus is on Italians learning Chinese, where phonemes such as /y/ and /ɤ/ are found, considering that some Italians we interviewed also know French or German, where /y/ is present and /ɤ/ is not. Results show that 1) Italians tend to identify Chinese stimuli as their L1 phonemes, with higher goodness-ratings for the most similar phones, 2) identification scores are correlated with the level of exposure to L2, though correlation/determination indexes are quite low, and 3) the influence of strong exposure to phonemes also found in L3 only partially emerges.