A produção das oclusivas desvozeadas do inglês por aprendizes brasileiros: uma análise acústica

Abstract

The English language is considered a lingua franca nowadays because more and more people from different countries have learned this language to communicate internationally. According to Jenkins (2000) with this huge quantity of English speakers there is no need for their pronunciation to be nativelike anymore. The main aim concerning pronunciation then is to be intelligible. Under this view of English as a lingua franca, the teaching of English pronunciation should be focused on the elements that could cause problems in communication. Also, it should be focused in how the learner’s first language can contribute or interfere in second language learning. In the studies of Second Language Aquisition, Flege (1999, 2007, 2011), Major (1987, 2001) and MacWhinney (2004) consider that the learner’s L1 can cause interference in L2 production until a certain point in acquisition, decreasing influence in further stages of development. This project aims to analyze through acoustic analysis the production of an element in English words by Brazilian learners in comparison to the native production. The main aim of this research was to verify how Brazilians are producing aspiration in monosyllabic words which begin with voiceless consonant stops, /p/, /t/ and /k/. Ten learners of English at intermediate level of proficiency and two native speakers were recorded at reading a career sentence containing the target words. Other aspects analyzed were if there was difference in duration of aspiration in relation to the three consonants and if the vowel after the consonant interfered in the aspiration rates. After submitting the data to acoustic analysis it was found that the subjects have produced shorter aspiration rates, which are similar to those produced in BP. In comparison with the native speakers’ data, the consonant /k/ was more aspirated and the vowel /I/ helped to increase aspiration only in the Brazilian speakers’ production.