Repository: OpenScienceRepository
Depends: R (>= 2.14)
Date: 2014-01-01 00:00:00
Title: English accents and their determinants
Description: In this study we investigate determinants of the strength of foreign accents in English pronunciation. We use pronunciation data from more than 800 speakers with a variety of language backgrounds and analyze the data with an eye to assessing the presence of a critical period in second language learning. In our dataset, speakers with a non-Indo-European native language had a clear breakpoint at the age of 6, whereas speakers with an Indo-European background had only a minor breakpoint around the age of 16. However, resampling the data in an attempt to verify the results showed that both language groups showed a mirrored bimodal pattern. In sum, our study does not support the existence of a stable critical period within which a second language can be learned with a high degree of proficiency, but rather a complex interaction between various social, educational and maturational factors.   Submitted to Bilingualism: Language and Cognition  
Authors@R: c()
Package: WielingBloemMignellaTimmermeisterBaayenNerbonne2014
Version: 1.1
License: CC BY-NC (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/de/)
