GLOBAL FOREIGN ACCENT IN NATIVE GERMAN SPEECH

Esther de Leeuw1, Monika Schmid2 & Ineke Mennen1
1Speech Science Research Centre, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh; 2Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

ID 1056
[full paper]

The primary aim of this study was to determine whether German native speakers who immigrated abroad are perceived to have a global foreign accent in their native speech. German monolingual listeners assessed global foreign accent of German immigrants living in either Anglophone Canada or the Dutch Netherlands, and five German monolingual controls. A highly significant difference was revealed between the foreign accent rating (FAR) of the consecutive bilinguals and the German monolingual control group as well as a significant difference between the two groups of second language learners. Multiple regression analyses indicated that for English L2 speakers, age of arrival (AOA) was the only significant predictor variable; whereas for Dutch L2 speakers, the averaged variable of contact with German (CONTACT) was the only significant predictor variable. Further research is necessary in order to illuminate cross-linguistic differences, particularly with regard to amount and type of contact to the native language.