Throughout the years a lot of research has been done on the acquisition of pronunciation in a second language (L2). But on the other hand, relatively little research has been done regarding the...Show moreThroughout the years a lot of research has been done on the acquisition of pronunciation in a second language (L2). But on the other hand, relatively little research has been done regarding the acquisition of pronunciation of Dutch as a second language (Neri, Cucchiarini & Strik, 2006). In addition there is also relatively little knowledge on how pronunciation can be trained by means of education or pronunciation training. Research by Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson and Koehler (1992) showed that especially the prosodic features of a language (e.g. aspects such as melody, loudness and tempo) determine whether a L2-speaker sounds “foreign”. The (international) literature suggests that there has been minimal attention on the acquisition of the pronunciation of a L2 in language classes. In some cases, it is assumed that language teachers have too little knowledge to train pronunciation systematically. Leiden University has been working on a solution to this problem by the development of modern technology, namely the computer program Lorre. This is a computer program, developed within Leiden University, which helps L2-learners train their pronunciation and also supplies with visual feedback. It is desired to expand this program with new language training material. My research explores the possibilities concerning extensions of the computer program Lorre and will focus on the prosodic level of pronunciation. In this thesis I investigated what kind of exercises can be implemented in Lorre to train prosodic features of Dutch as a second language. My research hypothesis is that many aspects of pronunciation can cause problems for L2 learners of Dutch and that it is possible to develop exercises to train all aspects of prosody. My goal was to examine the (international) literature to determine what prosodic problems occur when learning Dutch as a second language. Subsequently I developed practical exercises suitable to implement in Lorre.Show less
This paper examines the phenomenon of unaccusativity on the basis of the learnability of the perfective auxiliary by English native speakers of Dutch as a second language. The unaccusative...Show moreThis paper examines the phenomenon of unaccusativity on the basis of the learnability of the perfective auxiliary by English native speakers of Dutch as a second language. The unaccusative/unergative divide between intransitive verbs has been shown to apply across languages and is widely considered to be innate, although the syntactic manifestations differ between languages. One of the most salient distinctions between unaccusative and unergative verbs is the choice of either HAVE or BE as the perfective auxiliary, and Dutch is one language that makes such a distinction. In a series of papers Sorace (1993, 2000, 2004) suggests that the divide is more complex than a two-way split and that auxiliary selection is gradient, with verbs that fall into certain categories being more consistent in their auxiliary choice both within and across languages, and also more easily learnable. This gradience is summarised in the Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy. This paper describes an experiment investigating the interlanguage of Dutch L2 speakers. The findings show a strong tendency for the selection of BE for unaccusative verbs, and also a slight gradient effect in accordance with the ASH.Show less
