Perceptually driven VOT lengthening in initial stops by French-L1 English L2-learners

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the
processes involved in the acquisition of new phonetic
control regimes in L2 learning. We focus here on the
acquisition of long VOT initial stops by French
native speakers. Francophone speakers were asked
to repeat /ta/ stimuli varying in VOT and burst
intensity (BI). The productions were analysed in
terms of VOT, BI and duration of the following vowel
(Dur). Results show that the speakers are fairly
accurate in the imitation task. They exhibit more
fidelity to VOT than to BI variation, more sensitivity
to BI than to VOT variation, and a good potentiality
to respond in terms of Dur (even though vowel
duration is maintained constant). These results are
presented in relation with the high interspeaker
variation.