Production and perception of geminate consonants in Italian as a foreign language: Czech, Finnish, German and Spanish learners in contrast

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Andrea Peskova
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics ; General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 521229214

Be it for cultural, touristic, professional or other reasons, Italian is, after Spanish and French, the most popular Romance language to study in Europe (Eurostat). From a linguistic perspective, it not only has a specific melody that makes it sound very unique, but also belongs to the relatively small group of the world’s languages that have long consonants (geminates) in their sound systems. Since geminates represent very common sounds in the Italian phonemic system and can create differences in meaning (e.g., nonno ‘grandpa’ vs. nono ‘ninth’), their pronunciation is an important part of phonological competence and crucial for the learner’s intelligibility. Perhaps unsurprisingly, geminates are reported to be very tricky to learn. What are the sources of these difficulties seen in production? Is this a purely articulatory phenomenon or is it due to phonologically driven perceptual differences? To answer that, we need to test perception and production and compare languages with and without phonological length contrast. The project follows two main goals. The first goal is to contribute to the research on second language acquisition by exploring how Czech, Finnish, German and Spanish adult (literate) learners acquire (word-internal) consonant length in L2 Italian. This multi-linguistic approach is not random. Spanish has no quantity as a contrastive feature, Czech and German include vowel length in their systems and Finnish possesses both distinctive vowel and consonant length. Since L2 speech is characterized to a large extent by features transferred from the first language (L1), it is expected that the four different groups of learners will differ in production of Italian geminates. Moreover, it will be tested how the groups contrast in perception. It is well known that L2 learners perceive sounds differently than L1 speakers do and have difficulties to “hear” unfamiliar patterns. The project hopes to contribute to the current debate on the quite complex relationship between perception and production regarding the acquisition of consonant length. The second main goal is to bring the linguistic knowledge gained with empirical methods into the language classroom. It is surprising how many learners and teachers are not aware of the importance of phonetics and phonology, let alone the increasing relevance of such knowledge and data based on L1 and L2 sounds in modern speech recognition technologies and AI-based pronunciation apps. I believe that the combination of theory and practice is essential for training L2 speakers, be they future teachers or experts in different professions. Based on the results, the project will make proposals regarding the design of production and perception materials that have been widely underestimated in L2 textbooks and classrooms.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Lidia Calabrò; Professorin Dr. Laura Colantoni; Professor Dr. Silvio Cruschina; Professorin Dr. Wendy Elvira-García; Professorin Dr. Barbara Gili Fivela; Dr. Chiara Meluzzi; Professor Dr. Paolo Roseano; Privatdozentin Dr. Sandra Schwab; Dr. Radek Skarnitzl; Professorin Dr. Patrizia Sorianello