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Article published In:
Journal of Second Language Studies
Vol. 7:1 (2024) ► pp.157–192

VOT for plosives in the indigenous languages of Balochistan

Implications for adult learners of English

ORCID logo | Lasbela University of Agriculture Water and Marine Sciences, Pakistan
ORCID logo | Lasbela University of Agriculture Water and Marine Sciences, Pakistan
Different models of L3 acquisition have different predictions about the cross-linguistic effects of previous learning. The ‘Cumulative Enhancement Model’ predicts that both L1 and L2 have cumulative facilitative effects on L3, but L2 the Status Factor (L2SF) claims that L2 has stronger effects on L3 acquisition. Similarly, while the Typological Primacy Model claims that among the already acquired languages, a typologically similar language transfers more properties to L3, the Linguistic Proximity Model predicts a transfer of structurally similar properties from the previously learnt languages. On the other hand, the Scalpel Model, besides considering linguistic similarity, gives importance to factors such as frequency of use and nature of the input, language dominance, and learning context. The current paper contributes to this debate by presenting data collected from two groups of Balochi learners of English in Balochistan (Pakistan) who were taught British English (BrE) aspiration contrast in plosives at the allophonic level after they had acquired Pakistani English (PakE) as adult L2 learners. Thus, Balochi was L1, PakE L2, and BrE L3 of the learners. After teaching for more than a year, the learners were tested for accuracy in VOTs for BrE plosives. The results support the L2SF and Scalpel Model.
Keywords: allophones, aspiration, Balochi, L3, PakE, VOT
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.VOT Patterns in BrE, Pak-E, and Balochi
    • 2.1Voice onset time for plosives in BrE
    • 2.2VOT for plosives in PakE
    • 2.3VOT for plosives in Balochi
  • 3.Models of L3 acquisition
    • 3.1The Cumulative Enhancement Model (CEM)
    • 3.2The L2 status factor (L2SF)
    • 3.3The Typological Primacy Model (TPM)
    • 3.4The Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM)
    • 3.5The Scalpel Model (SM)
  • 4.The current study
  • 5.Methods of data collection
    • 5.1Participants
      • 5.1.1Monolingual Balochi speakers
      • 5.1.2Teachers
      • 5.1.3Target participants/students
    • 5.2Stimuli
    • 5.3Recording procedure
    • 5.4Acoustic analyses
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1VOT of Balochi L1 plosives
    • 6.2VOT of English plosives produced by Teachers
    • 6.3VOT of English plosives produced by Students
    • 6.4Comparison of Balochi L1 stops with the corresponding L3 English stops
  • 7.Analysis and discussion
    • 7.1Summary of the results
    • 7.2Predictions of the L3 models
    • 7.3Analysis of the results
    • 7.4The remaining issues
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 January 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.23002.sye
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