English with a Latin beat: Studies in Portuguese/Spanish—English interphonology (review)

Can English with a Latin beat (ELB) do the samba, salsa, flamenco, and fado without losing its beat? This is one of the questions that will be addressed in this review. The volume consists of an introductory section and eleven chapters on the phonological acquisition of English as a foreign language (EFL). It is organized in a bottom-up hierarchical fashion, covering studies that revolve around the segment (Part I), the syllable (Part II), and higher prosodic domains (Part III). The volume distinguishes itself from others in the field in that it compiles studies focusing on two geographically and linguistically related first languages: Portuguese and Spanish. In addition, it brings together empirical studies explicitly or implicitly designed to assess two theoretical assumptions on second language (L2) acquisition: the Speech Learning Model (Flege 1995) and the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman 1977). Written by a team of researchers from universities in Brazil, Europe, and the United States, some of international renown, this volume constitutes a significant contribution to the field of phonological L2 acquisition and, as such, it is highly recommended to researchers in the field and in phonology in general.

The volume begins with a section that introduces and contextualizes the rationale behind the conceptualization of the volume, and provides a succinct historical overview of research in L2 phonological acquisition. This is followed by Part I, a section comprised of three studies on the acquisition of segments. The first chapter “Adult phonetic learning of a second language vowel system”, by Barbara Baptista, examines the acquisition of English vowels by Brazilian Portuguese speakers. The study concludes that foreign vowels are not acquired in isolation; instead, it is argued that they are learned as part of a system in which each new vowel triggers featural adjustments in its vocalic neighbors. The paper by Paola Escudero, “The phonological and phonetic development of new vowel contrasts in Spanish learners of English”, reports the findings of a study investigating the perception of Scottish English /i/–/i/ by Spanish speakers. Her findings suggest a stage-like trajectory in the development of the /i/–/i/ contrast, starting with the learners’ inability to identify the contrast, intermediated via stages in which they use vowel duration and/or spectral quality to differentiate the two vowels, to a final stage in which the two vowels are discriminated via spectral quality only, as is the case by speakers of Scottish English. The final paper in this section is “Age and native language influence on the perception of English vowels”, by Francisco Gallardo del Puerto, M^a Luisa García Lecumberri, and Jasone Cenoz. As the title suggests, it investigates the effects of age and L1 influence (Spanish) on the perception of English vowels. It is argued that the age of initial exposure to the L2 does not constitute an advantage to the accurate perception of novel vowels, thus dismissing a critical period effect.

The second part of the volume consists of five papers devoted to syllable-level studies. The first chapter, “The influence of voicing and sonority relationships on the production of English final consonants”, by Barbara Baptista and Jair da Silva Filho, examines the effect of voicing and sonority markedness on the production of English word-final consonants (codas) by Brazilian Portuguese speakers. The results indicate that the L1-based phenomenon of i-paragoge is favoured after a voiced consonant, an obstruent, and obstruents that have dorsal and coronal articulators. The second chapter, “Perception and production of vowel paragoge by Brazilian EFL students”, authored by Rosana Koerich, adds another dimension to the analysis of i-paragoge via the incorporation of a perception perspective. The study establishes that the production of codas in interlanguage positively correlates with learners’ ability to discriminate them, corroborating thus the “perception before production” hypothesis (e.g., Polivanov 1931, Flege 1993). The remaining three chapters in Part II involve the acquisition of /s/ + consonant/s (sC...