37th Annual Student Research Conference
Perception of the French "R" by Native English Speakers
Emmanuelle Wilson*, Ellah Metcalf, and Kimzey Spreeman
Dr. Darrin Hetrick, Faculty Mentor
The French “r” is notoriously hard to pronounce for native English speakers (NES). One of the contributing factors may be that it is not registered as a sound to NES, causing it not to be heard or to be heard but ignored. Our study explored these differences in perception and production of the French “r” within a small sample of Truman student participants. Participants were asked first to write down French words containing the rhotic in different locations (initial, medial, final and within consonant clusters). This was done to determine whether they heard the phoneme, however they registered and wrote it. They were then asked to repeat the words, which was done to determine how NES approximate the sound if heard. The two tests confirmed whether missed pronunciation is due to not hearing the sound or not being able to pronounce it.
Keywords: french, acoustics, sound perception, rhotic, phonology, sociolinguistics, linguistics, language learning
Topic(s):Linguistics
French
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Session: 302-2
Location: SUB Georgian Room A
Time: 1:00